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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (10 July) . . Page.. 2437 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, I know that that is one way through. I am sure that having seven 3-member electorates would be a very appealing option!

Mr Stanhope: Mr Hird planted the seed in my mind.

MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed. No, we have not changed our position. We have indicated that we want to see this issue clarified. We have taken the view that the move by the Assembly in 1993, which we supported, to amend the government of the day's budget was wrong. We have said that-

Mr Berry: No, Mrs Carnell is on the record as saying that the government should resign.

MR HUMPHRIES: No, I am talking about the financial initiatives of the crown, Mr Berry. In 1993 the then opposition indicated that it would support such a move. We have accepted the argument that that was wrong and we have repudiated that precedent. I thought that we had established an understanding about that. If Mr Stanhope would like to have further discussion about that, I am very open to that and I hope that we can sort something out.

I want to make one brief comment about the ridiculous suggestion from Mr Corbell that somehow the situation in June 2000 in the ACT Assembly was different from the situation in November 1975 at the federal level. Dear, oh dear, what a very long bow we have there, Mr Speaker! The first of the two points of distinction was that the budget was rejected in the upper house there and we do not have an upper house here. My question about that is: what does that prove? So what?

The other issue was the question of blocking supply as opposed to rejecting the budget. That really takes the cake. Mr Corbell is pretty good at running fine distinctions in arguments, but that one really takes the cake. It is all right to block the budget but not all right simply not to pass it, as I understand it.

Mr Smyth: It is like using a wedge out of a sand bunker.

MR HUMPHRIES: That is right. I was only in my minority at the time of the 1975 crisis, but I do recall that what the Labor Party was saying about that at the time-

Ms Carnell: You were just a baby.

MR HUMPHRIES: I was not quite a baby. I was a young person, but a keen follower of politics. Obviously, Mr Corbell was even younger because he has very little understanding of what occurred at that time. Mr Speaker, my understanding is that at the time of the 1975 crisis the Senate refused to pass the budget. They did not actually vote it down; they refused to pass it. I understand that the Labor government of the day, the Whitlam government, said, "This is a subterfuge. The Senate is defeating the government's budget by stealth. It is refusing to consider the issue and thereby is blocking the budget. It is killing the budget. It is preventing the budget from being passed into law."

Mr Berry: It was blocking supply.

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