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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 1 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 241 ..

Members interjected.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I cannot get a word in edgeways here.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Humphries has the floor.

MR HUMPHRIES: Thank you, Mr Speaker. If we believe that the electorate deserves better consultation - - -

Members interjected.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The next person who interjects will be warned.

Members interjected.

MR SPEAKER: I warn you, Mr Berry.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, if we have a duty to our electorate to refine and improve the means of consultation and communication with them - the electorate - then we owe it to them to be able to constantly revise and review the traditions and the structures of the Westminster system which we have inherited in this place and which are very old. I, for one, think the committee system is very good - do not let me pretend for one minute that my views are those of opposition to the work of the committee system - but I also know that there are severe limitations in the committee system. They require only the smallest amount of cursory thought and we see what those limitations are.

First of all, at most, only five members of the Assembly sit on each committee. A member of the public with a very important point to make to the broader community cannot make it to all 17 members of the Assembly if they can communicate with only, usually three, but maybe four or five members of a particular committee. Secondly, you can get access to a committee only if a committee has a reference on a matter which is relevant to the matter about which you, the member of the community, want to speak to the committee. What if someone has a concern about a particular issue on which there is no reference before the Assembly at the moment? What do they do? They have no option to pursue it, except to write letters or to attend "Meet the Minister", to meet members of this side of the chamber and this place, or to use some other extraordinary device, as some of them have in the past - to stage a demonstration out here or to come into the gallery and wave placards. That is the device members of the public have to use to get access to the Assembly in that way.

Mr Speaker, I am not frightened of change. I am not frightened of exploring what this new means of direct address by members of the public to the Assembly might mean to the workings of this parliament. I am quite prepared to let the process be properly monitored, and, if it does not work, if it fails to achieve its purposes, I am quite prepared to acknowledge that it has been a mistake and to back away from it. But I think that those in this place who think that they are too smart to need further advice directly from the electorate are doing a grave disservice to our community and should reconsider.

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