Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 1 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 240 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

mention it again. They have been severely embarrassed by the whole process of creation that they were involved in before the last election and the dumb promise they made, like many of the other promises they made before the election. They were dumb, in the sense that they would be very difficult to implement, but they were specifically designed to be vote-catching. They had nothing to do with providing a better service to the community, as has been proven by their rationalist approach to services in this Territory.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (3.42): Mr Speaker, as I listened to the remarks of Mr Berry - who is leaving the chamber, as he usually does after he speaks - and Mr Moore, a word was lurking in the back of my mind. It floated around in my mind and came back fairly quickly.

Mr Berry: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: Mr Humphries likes to create the impression that things are occurring which are not. I am not leaving the chamber.

MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order. Go on, Mr Humphries.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, there was a word that came powerfully to my attention as I heard the remarks made by Mr Moore and Mr Berry. It was at the back of my mind, and then it came very much to the forefront. That word was "conservative". Mr Moore and Mr Berry are being - - -

Mr Moore: Thank you, Gary. It is very rare that I get it. I think it is very rare that Wayne gets it, too.

MR HUMPHRIES: I know that you are not used to that title, Mr Moore, and Mr Berry is even less used to it than you are. The fact of the matter is, Mr Speaker, that we have in these comments of Mr Moore and Mr Berry the arch conservative reaction: "No; this is change that frightens us. This is change that will somehow compromise the way we do things. It threatens the way we control the channels of communication between the electorate and ourselves". That, Mr Speaker, is the real nub of this issue.

Mr Berry and Mr Moore and their colleagues are able to escape a certain amount of direct interaction with their constituents by a number of devices which protect this chamber. There is a gallery up there and there is an invisible bar across the gallery. Members of the public do not pass over that bar into this part of the chamber. They certainly are not supposed to say anything to members of the Assembly while they are on that side of the bar. But, Mr Speaker, the people on that side of the bar very often have very important things to say, and this community would be better, on occasions, if it heard what they had to say.

Mr Berry: This might have worked in university debates, Gary.

MR HUMPHRIES: I know that you do not want to hear it, Mr Berry. If you do not want to hear it, leave the chamber, as you usually do. Mr Speaker, if we believe that it is our task in this place to improve, all the time, the means of consultation and communication with the electorate, then surely we owe it - - -

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .