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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (12 November) . . Page.. 4031 ..

MS McRAE (continuing):

The idea of what politics is about, what politicians are about and what actually happens in the political process is very much fed by that very direct and very intense conflict in question time. The media pay very little attention to whatever else happens in the Federal Parliament and to what else happens in this Assembly. I am not casting aspersions on the media for what they choose to do. They reflect what the constituency wants to read, what the constituency wants to know, what the constituency is interested in. That is how they sell their papers; that is how they get their programs watched; that is how they maintain interest by the public. Overwhelmingly, they reflect what the community wants to hear - whether this is right, whether this is wrong and what the other view is.

Every now and again you get pictures of people working together, usually for charitable causes, usually for things that the media have an interest in promoting because those things deserve support. I think we were all pictured in the Canberra Times receiving blankets for the Smith Family. We have all been pictured at various times doing things together for the good of the community in those charitable ways. But, for the most part, people want to know from us, "Why do you disagree with that? How do you disagree with that? What is wrong with what is in front of you? What are you going to say about it?".

I have no problem with Mrs Littlewood viewing all of that as negativity. That is her prerogative. But I think what happens is the day-to-day reality of the world that we all live in and the day-to-day reality of our responsibilities to the media and the general public. It may be viewed as negativity, but it adds up to a very thorough scrutiny of what the Government is doing and a very thorough assessment of just what is going wrong. If there happens to be one story after another, then it means that there is one mistake after another. That is what the Opposition is for.

Labor has absolutely no problem with the view that is often espoused by Mr Moore and the Greens that the Independents play a crucial role in all of this. We acknowledge that role. We see it as a valuable role for the ACT. But their role is fundamentally different from ours. Their role is quite different by both character and interpretation. They play a very important role in the city of Canberra because they hold the balance of power, because they have the option of changing views and of manipulating the system - I do not mean in a negative way - and through their vote bringing about one outcome or another. They have found in many cases that it is not our views that they want to support. That is fine. I think that their role is fundamentally different.

The way that the community seems to be evolving, in time you may be able to reinterpret the role of the Opposition and the role of all the members of the Assembly. I as yet have no understanding of how that could work, and I will staunchly defend the right of the Opposition and the need for the Opposition to find the mistakes, to find the loopholes, to criticise, to put up vigorous counter-debate, to put the views that people have about the mistakes that governments make, or even the perceived mistakes. We are not elected by the same people. We are not elected to represent the same issues. Every single criticism I bring forward comes with a body of evidence behind me from people who have rung, from people who have talked to me, from people who are concerned that Labor represent their views on the issues. That to me is of fundamental importance.

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