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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (8 March) . . Page.. 710 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

Isn't it interesting that we saw the Deputy Chief Minister stand up in this place and talk about tickets, when he was the strongest advocate against tickets and made sure that tickets in electoral systems could not apply? How dare he stand up and boast and poke his finger at the Labor Party about tickets. The Labor Party would have supported an electoral system where tickets and how-to-vote cards were still in place. But it was you lot, all of you blokes, that threw it out.

Let us look at the Labor Party's record. Of the first five Labor members, two were women. Of the second eight, four were women. And so on. Even the No Self Government Party beat the Liberal Party. Fifty per cent of their elected representatives were women. So do not give me that nonsense. The Labor Party had the first woman Chief Minister, and so on and so on. This Chief Minister has been the worst representative for women in the ACT.

What about the Deputy Chief Minister's approach to the women's legal service? Why was it that he refused to endorse the funding allocation recommended by the Law Society? I know why and I think most other people know why too. It was because of the women's legal service's strong stand in support of women in the ACT. It was a political decision. That is what that was all about. Let us not play with words in this place.

The Greens have a good record on electing women in the ACT, and I think the Labor Party has too. But it is true that the electoral system has worked against the Labor Party's representation of women in the ACT. We have to work out ways to address that. That is a matter for us.

But I can tell you this: There are a lot of people who would not like the Liberal Party's record on women's issues, particularly the record of the Chief Minister on women's issue - an appalling performance. You will recall the thousands of women who stood in the square outside this place and screeched at the Chief Minister because of her performance on abortion. She supported all of you blokes in here, one of you with a crucifix on your collar, trying to take away a woman's right to choose. Don't one of you ever stand up in this place and say that you are great supporters of women's issues, because you have not earned it. In fact, you have thrown it away. You have disgraced yourselves.

I come back to that issue of the electoral system and how the Minister, Mr Humphries, stood in this place preaching to us about tickets. If it was up to the Labor Party, how-to-vote cards would be in place. They are gone and we have to live with that. It is extremely ironic for the Deputy Chief Minister to stand up in this place and start criticising us over something he and his mates want. Mr Humphries, Mr Moore - all of you lot - Mr Osborne and Mr Rugendyke are great supporters of this system. Do not poke your finger at us. Have a look at your own record and have a look at what you have done. Then have a look at the party that has stood up in this place for women's issues every time it has been necessary. We have stood up and stood firm.

Every one of us regrets that more women were not elected. We will have to address that somehow. Under the system we have to deal with, we have to do it differently. As you would appreciate, the system favours incumbent people, and most of the incumbents here

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