Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 6 Hansard (11 May) . . Page.. 1584 ..

MS CARNELL (continuing):

Reflecting on the mood at the time, a large number of candidates stood for election to the First Assembly on the sole platform of abolishing the Assembly once they were elected. But when they were elected most realised that they should at least try to make self-government work. The First Assembly was an unusual and volatile forum. Rosemary Follett was appointed as the first Chief Minister of the Territory on 11 May 1989, two months after the Assembly election. This was a historic achievement, doubly so as Rosemary was the first female leader of any State or Territory.

Several people in the new Assembly had very little knowledge of executive government or parliamentary procedure, and I am sure that the Clerk could write some very interesting books about those early days. It was therefore hardly surprising that it occasionally degenerated into what some people said was farce and had considerable difficulty in earning the respect of local citizens as well as politicians and parliamentarians from other States. We have now evolved to become a model of how to combine in one jurisdiction the functions traditionally held by State and local governments in the rest of Australia, a model for regional government and, some people would say, a model for the rest of Australia as we look towards a vote on whether we should become a republic or not because, as many people would be aware, our self-government Act is set up on a very republican base.

The ACT's politicians and officials and Public Service are now respected by our peers. Additionally, from the point of view of most electors a fortunate by-product of combining the responsibilities of both State and local council is the fact that the ACT has fewer politicians per head of population than anywhere else in this nation, by a country mile. We began with a Public Service steeped in the culture of the Commonwealth, with its characteristic hierarchy, remoteness from the lives of many Australians and great concern for administrative process but without real consumer or customer focus.

Today the ACT has its own independent Public Service tailored to the special needs of the Territory for efficient delivery of both State and municipal services. Today, on the tenth anniversary of self-government, we should reflect on what a wonderful Public Service we have here in the Territory and how much it too has changed over the last 10 years. It has changed in many ways. In its responsiveness to its customers, the people of Canberra, it is an example for other public services in the rest of Australia to follow. Self-government has delivered the ACT from what some would describe as the benevolent dictatorship of faceless bureaucrats and absent Commonwealth Ministers to a situation where we have an Assembly that is, I suspect, the closest to the people of any parliament in this country.

In 1989 we were handed a city which - let us be fair, Mr Speaker - was excessively costly to run. Our education and health systems were by far the most expensive in Australia, our public transport system was the least used and most expensive of any capital city, and the legacy of the NCDC planning was that the costs of Canberra roads, water supply, sewerage, parks and gardens were excessive, far more than the people of Canberra could afford. On top of that, the Commonwealth Government cut general purpose funding by 49 per cent in real terms, a real challenge for any Assembly. It was a bit like inheriting a grand old castle which we could not afford to maintain.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .