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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (9 May) . . Page.. 1233 ..
MR OSBORNE (continuing):
The GST issue could be addressed in a more focussed way as suggested by the committee;
To authorise the levying of a tax by way of a subordinate law will be a significant diminution in the role of the Assembly in that-
the initiation of the tax will not be by way of primary law and will not need Assembly (therefore community) approval and will not receive Assembly (that is community) scrutiny (although the Assembly will have veto rights after initiation); and
this could be utilised in the future in ways that have not yet been contemplated; and
To remove the possibility of judicial challenge to fees on the grounds that they are, in substance, taxes is not necessarily to be seen as a virtue (as pointed out by the committee).
The key issue is the Assembly's responsibilities to the citizens of the Territory-Taxes would be initiated without the authority of the people's representatives.
Mr Speaker, I would also like to read a brief extract from a book loaned to my office by the Clerk, entitled An Encyclopaedia of Parliament. Most members will be familiar with the big green book that Mr McRae often delves into. This one sits beside it on his bookshelf. It states:
Of supreme importance in parliamentary history was the reign of Edward I, the great legislator. Under him the institutions of our government advanced with a rapidity hitherto unmatched. Edward's first Parliament ... met in 1275 and enacted the first Statute of Westminster, a just and enlightened measure safeguarding the rights and liberties of each subject ... the climax in the constitutional history of the reign was reached in 1295 with the summoning of the celebrated Model Parliament. It met on 13 November and was called because the King stood in urgent need of money. This Parliament became the model for all future Parliaments ... The King surrendered to the Model Parliament his power of arbitrary taxation and, although subsequently infringed, the parliamentary control of taxation became an accepted constitutional principle from that date.
Mr Speaker, Edward I is none other than the King nicknamed "Longshanks" in the film Braveheart, featuring Mel Gibson, which I am sure most, if not all, of us have seen. Leaving aside Edward's altercations with the Scots, he nonetheless did a lot of good things during his reign that still affect us in Canberra today. He inherited a primitive form of parliament known as the King's Great Council, and transformed it into a legislative body that represented all areas of society: the land-owning barons, the common people and the church.
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