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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 4 Hansard (21 April) . . Page.. 1114 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, if Mr Berry indicates that I have leave to have an extension of time, I will be happy to withdraw my motion.

MR SPEAKER: You are now wasting more time, I grant you that.

MR HUMPHRIES: Do I have leave, Mr Berry?

Mr Berry: Yes, go on. I yield; I am wrestled to the ground.

MR HUMPHRIES: Thank you. I seek leave to withdraw my motion, Mr Speaker.

Leave granted.

(Extension of time granted)

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, the fundamental question here is: Why should students be put in that position? No convincing reason has been advanced yet by Mr Corbell or anybody else as to why students are different from everybody else in the community. No reason has been advanced as to why I should be forced to contribute to particular services I might not use as a member of this place or as a member of any other work force that I am aware of, except perhaps those places where there is compulsory unionism, which the Assembly has voted to outlaw anyway, or, in respect of the suburb where I live, beyond the fact that I have to pay rates and taxes for the provision of general community services.

Mr Berry: It is the same thing.

MR HUMPHRIES: It is not the same thing, Mr Speaker. It is a subset of my membership of the community at large. I do not pay those student union fees unless I go to a university, college or campus. I do not pay them. I do not pay them as Gary Humphries, living in Weston. We do not pay them, Mr Corbell, or anybody else in this place, unless we go to a university campus. Why should students be the only people who pay those sorts of fees under compulsion? There is no good reason, Mr Speaker.

I would argue, Mr Speaker, that the reason for compulsion in this context has not been explained. Why do students have to be alone among those in the community who are forced to pay for particular services which they may not want or use? Mr Speaker, in the absence of a reason for that, we should certainly vote against this motion.

MR BERRY (5.34): Mr Speaker, I think the first thing we should deal with here is what this is all about. This is an ideological position from the Liberals opposite about the collective spirit and its influence over decision-making. They are strenuously opposed to collectivism and they support the cult of the individual. Mr Speaker, why is it then that I have to pay rates and taxes in this Territory to pay the wages of Gary Humphries or for the Feel the Power campaign, the Bruce Stadium debacle or the futsal slab? The list goes on, as the Chief Minister would say. I do so not because I want to, not because I really have a say in the matter, but because I am part of a collective, that is, the collective

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