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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (29 November) . . Page.. 3447 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

I am not sure how under Mr Kaine's proposal you would reconcile the varying approaches of the different parties and the policies that the different parties and Independents would have; but if Mr Kaine can come up with a way of reengineering the system, perhaps we should consider it as well. He smirks. Mr Moore has gone over to give him another hug. I am getting worried, Mr Speaker: they are now hugging, embracing and shaking hands. The spirit of bipartisanship breaking out all over the Assembly will be a joy to all Canberrans when they read about it in the Canberra Times in the morning.

Mr Speaker, these amendments have to get up, but it is consistent with what the government has said all along that we have to get out together and convince the public that they do get value for money from their Assembly members, that it is about better representation and that it is about making the system work better. I think Mr Hird is the perfect example of an overworked Assembly member with the committee work that he gets through. The sheer number of reports that the committee he chairs, the Planning and Urban Services Committee, gets through, and it would have to be the hardest working committee in the place, is a credit not only to him but also his two co-members.

The fact that Mr Hird sits on just about every other committee that this place puts forward is an indication that there is something wrong, that there are insufficient members of the Assembly to do the job properly, and it is an important job. Given the road to Damascus that the Labor Party has travelled, given Mr Stanhope's guarantee, which is now in Hansard, of bipartisan support and given that, at the initial stage, the amended motion will now look at options to change the act and talk to the public, get out there and consult with the public about what shape and what size their Assembly should be, the government will be supporting the amended motion, Mr Speaker, with a view to making sure that what we do get is bipartisan support and what we do get is more handshaking and hugging from Mr Moore and Mr Kaine and that we actually end up with better governance and better representation.

I believe that the model we have whereby we have amalgamated two levels of government into one has been successful. It was not without its detractors early on, but I think the fact that in a couple of areas the ACT has been able to merge local and state or territory government functions into one level and do it successfully is an indication to the rest of Australia of the sort of government system it should be looking at.

It also provides a model possibly for a future republic whereby Australia could end up with two tiers of government and regional government based on the work that the government has done with the shires and the major towns in the region of the Australian capital. There is a lot of food for thought on the table tonight. I welcome Mr Stanhope's statement that there must be a bipartisan approach. I am pleased that they have travelled their road to Damascus. The government will be supporting the amended motion.

Mr Stanhope: That was crap, minister, crap.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Withdraw that, please. That is an unparliamentary comment.

Mr Stanhope: I withdraw anything that was unparliamentary. I was provoked.

MR SPEAKER: Thank you.

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