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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (29 November) . . Page.. 3445 ..

MR QUINLAN (continuing):

fact that we have self-government. I do believe that an all-out push to increase the number of members in this place would be likely to set back that process of acceptance.

I do not believe that the masses out there in Canberra are ever going to accept self-government and embrace it fully. Politicians will always be amongst the least popular citizens of the community. However, I do sense that there is a grudging acceptance and I do counsel members not to push this issue too hard out there. Certainly consult, but let us do it softly, softly, otherwise we will put back the image of self-government within the territory.

I might just close by saying that there is one way that this government could immediately ameliorate some of the problems that exist, that is, by providing considerably more in resources to the non-executive members of the Assembly. The non-executive members of the Assembly, whether they be Independents or part of the opposition, also have to absorb a considerable amount of information.

We have within the Assembly the capacity to improve considerably the operation of the place by providing to all members of the Assembly sufficient resources to handle the work that they have, whether they be performing the role of a shadow minister, whether they be performing the role of committee members and chairs and whether they be tending to the very many constituent inquiries and problems that they receive.

I do think that, while we are consulting and while we are thinking about the number of members that we ought to have in this Assembly, we ought also to think about how we resource the existing complement of members within the Assembly so that they can perform the job that is allotted to them and is expected of them by the people of the ACT. Mr Speaker, I do recommend that we do consult on this particular issue, but that we do it in a softly, softly mode.

MR SMYTH (Minister for Urban Services) (8:19): Mr Speaker, if I am reading this proposal properly, after the foreshadowed amendment is in place and Ms Tucker's motion has been amended by Mr Stanhope, it will read:

This Assembly, agreeing that the ACT community should have legislative control over the structure of the Legislative Assembly and agreeing that the size of the Assembly is a matter of public importance, requests the Chief Minister to undertake discussions with the Commonwealth Minister for Territories on the possibility of amending the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 to devolve to the Assembly the power to determine the number of members and undertake public consultation on the desirability or otherwise of expanding the size of the Assembly.

Mr Humphries and the government have said for some time now that the only way that this debate could go forward was through a bipartisan approach, that unless the majority of the members of the Assembly, including the two major parties, were willing to put aside the political point scoring and work together in talks with the community on this proposal, it was doomed to failure, and would accept the generous nature of Mr Stanhope's offer tonight that the Labor Party has fundamentally shifted its position and will work with the government on this matter.

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