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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 2557 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

opposition will remain unspoken. This system may never have a chance to see the light of day because the major parties are not really interested in good government. Their major concern is power, and the existing system maintains the artificial divide between them. There is a lot more that I would like to say on this issue, Mr Speaker. However, I will not bore the two major parties, as it appears I am doing.

On the issue of removing the role of Opposition Leader at this stage, as I said earlier I will need to be convinced that it is the thing to do right now. I am sure Mrs Carnell will stand up and say that she will consider it because she believes in a more council style of government; yet that was the main thrust of her election campaign 21/2 years ago and she did nothing about it. I look forward to hearing from her on this issue. I am quite happy to see the current system unchanged at this stage, unless Ms Tucker can convince me otherwise, until after the next election. Leave Mr Berry where he is. I look forward to working with any members who are interested in making this Assembly work a hell of a lot better than it is at the moment.

Mrs Carnell: Does not one of you guys want to speak?

Mr Berry: I am the one under the microscope. I just want to hear what you - - -

MR SPEAKER: Nobody is under the microscope at the moment.

Mr Humphries: Have you an argument for your position to be retained? We want to hear about it.

Mr Berry: No, no. I want to hear what you have to say, and I will respond to it.

Mr Humphries: We want to hear your arguments for retaining the position.

MR SPEAKER: Come, come! Most of us are not backward in coming forward.

Ms McRae: That is ridiculous. You are the one attacking here.

Mrs Carnell: We are not attacking anyone.

MR SPEAKER: Order! I am puzzled by the sudden modesty, but Mr Wood has the call.

MR WOOD (4.59): I am not modest, Mr Speaker. We hear often the claim that we should be non-adversarial and there is great resentment of the partisan adversarial nature of this Assembly. Indeed, for a fair part of our proceedings we are adversarial. We are at the moment, I suppose. There are times when we have quite deep differences, genuine differences; but when there is no majority government the Assembly actually survives and operates by cooperation and by working together. The Assembly works that way. I have been here longer than most members in the chamber and I can tell you that. I am sure you already know.

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