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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4608 ..

MR CORNWELL (continuing):

In the event that certain members may have forgotten, I remind them that this place is a fully-fledged legislature. If we were to allow symbols of one small section of the community to be placed in here, then it would raise the question of where one should draw the line. If we allow one, then logically we must allow all. I suggest to members that other sections of the community of whatever persuasion may, perhaps even would, feel entitled to have their symbols installed in this place. In that event, how would we decide which symbols were legitimate and which were not, and what criteria would we use? It is not a question that I would like the Administration and Procedure Committee to have to address. Having made these decisions - if we could, I repeat - how would we justify our conclusions? I do not think it takes much foresight to realise that there would be potential for community angst as a by-product of our decisions if we were to go down that track.

Should this motion pass, it will be as a result of the desire of the Greens and ultimately the majority of this Assembly to jump on the Wik bandwagon. I remind members of Ms Tucker's speech, which did not talk much at all about flags but spoke a great deal about Wik, reconciliation, historical tragedies, et cetera. I repeat that if this motion is passed it will be because a majority of this Assembly desire to jump on the Wik bandwagon, along with a noisy collection of the usual suspects determined to politicise this vital national debate in the Federal Parliament.

The Prime Minister has appealed to the Senate to sort out the Wik issue sooner rather than later, so that it can be put behind us. That is not a question of taking sides one way or the other. The Prime Minister has asked that the Senate sort it out sooner rather than later. I believe that the Senate is the appropriate place to do this, without the token help of this Assembly. I fully appreciate that political correctness as well as genuine conviction will decide the issue here. Nevertheless, it is time in this country, I believe, for elected representatives to have the courage of their convictions and be prepared to stand up for what they believe in. This, in my case, is to oppose political correctness and political expediency on a sensitive and certainly potentially divisive issue.

As far as the flags themselves are concerned, there are already several flagpoles around Canberra - in fact, outside this Assembly itself - from which these flags proudly fly during appropriate times, including NAIDOC week, as we are all aware. That same courtesy, I remind members, is extended to other groups to fly their flags; but are they, too, to be invited to have flags in this Assembly?

Finally, I would suggest that it is a matter that should more appropriately be left to the Fourth Assembly rather than the fag end of the Third Assembly. I am not convinced that we should be making decisions upon our protocols for this Assembly at this point, one week short of rising. I am aware, of course, of why this is happening, and that is that in the Fourth Assembly it would be much more difficult to reverse a decision than it would be to oppose a motion such as this. Nevertheless, I believe that it would be better left until the Fourth Assembly, so that the new body can make a decision. It may be the same decision, but at least we should allow the new body to make decisions for themselves upon their own protocols - not legislation relating to the Territory, but the Assembly's own protocols. For the reasons outlined, I oppose this motion.

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