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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 2550 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

and at various times the Independents, are all in opposition to the Government; yet the leader of the ALP is certainly not our leader. There are 10 members in this Assembly who are in opposition to the Government and Mr Berry speaks for only six of them. In fact, quite often the opposition is only the four members here and we have a very cohesive grouping in the rest of the chamber.

Mr Moore: You notice that there are more members of the crossbench opposition than there are of the current official Opposition.

MS TUCKER: I know. It is disappointing that the Labor Party and the Liberal Party are not more interested in this and listening to this important debate.

The position of Leader of the Opposition is not a necessity. It does not depend on any statutory law. The position arose in the English Parliament in the early nineteenth century and has continued on as a convention of the parliament. The Federal Parliament recognised the position of Leader of the Opposition in its standing orders only in 1931. In the ACT the position depends entirely on parliamentary custom and what is contained in the standing orders. The position has no formal powers or functions. The Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988, which is, in effect, the ACT's constitution, makes no provision for a Leader of the Opposition. It provides for the election of a Chief Minister, which in itself is unusual for a parliament, and the appointment of three Ministers; but there is no mention of a Leader of the Opposition. The standing orders that were prepared for the First Assembly in 1989 also made no provision for a Leader of the Opposition. It seems obvious to us that it was the clear intention of those - - -

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! You have the call, Ms Tucker. There seem to be discussions right around the chamber.

Ms McRae: He is helping you.

MS TUCKER: He is calling me to order. Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I do not hear it. It is fine.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: It is not fine. You have the call.

MS TUCKER: Okay. It is in your hands, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. It seems obvious to us that it was the clear intention of those people who established ACT self-government that, while the Assembly would generally follow the Westminster model of parliament, there were some aspects of the Westminster model that were not appropriate for the ACT Assembly. It is quite obvious that we do not need all the trappings of a parliament. The ACT Assembly exists to govern a city of 300,000 people, not a State or a country. Being a Territory parliament, the Assembly also deals with both municipal and State government functions. The ACT's voting system right from the start has been a proportional-based system which almost guarantees that a range of parties and Independents will be elected and that minority government will be the norm. However, the Labor and Liberal parties could not accept a reduction in their power.

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