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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 6 Hansard (13 June) . . Page.. 1689 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

Turning to the Electoral Amendment Bill 2001, I was interested to hear what people had to say there. A lot of gloom and doom has been spread by members, quite unreasonably, in terms of the proposed government amendments and the ALP amendments. I have lived in this town all of my life. I have seen Independents elected here. The first representative of the seat of Canberra, before Jimmy Fraser, was a gentleman who was an Independent.

Mr Hird: Dr John Knox.

MR STEFANIAK: Thank you, Mr Hird, for your interjection from behind the bar. Mr Rugendyke mentioned that 30 per cent or so of the electorate were voting for Independents. I suspect that, because of the Hare-Clark system, we will see Independents and smaller parties continuing to be represented in the Assembly. Indeed, I wonder when we will actually see a majority government. We probably would not see one go past one term. That will be interesting to see. Despite a lot of the histrionics that my colleague and friend Mr Moore and a few other people have gone on with today, I really cannot see how the doom and gloom which they say will occur as a result of these government and ALP amendments will actually occur. I do not think that will be the case.

Basically, with these amendments we are bringing this legislation into line with that of the other states and territories and of the Commonwealth. It was quite funny when Mr Moore theatrically showed the Sydney Morning Herald headline "Dirty politics: the grab for cash". It is interesting to note the hypocrisy of the Sydney Morning Herald in that regard, Mr Speaker, because a bit further down page 1 there was the following comment box:

That is a good fundraiser, isn't it? Let us go to page 7. Here we go: there are lovely photos of Gough Whitlam, Lady Mary Fairfax, Franco Belgiorno Nettis and other people and a confidential guest list for Labor's richest fundraiser. Lots of key things are highlighted, including the 10 seats for the Sydney Morning Herald. What hypocrisy! Here you go, Michael, you can have the Herald back, mate.

I was fascinated by the comments of Mr Kaine, a bit of a political journeyman, about going to join the Greens. He has been a Liberal and he has been an Independent. I think he had a political party, too.

Mr Moore: Yes, the United Canberra Party.

MR STEFANIAK: The United Canberra Party. I think he has still got that one, but it is amazing to think of Trevor becoming a Green. Billy Hughes would be proud of him if he could pull off that one. I saw Ms Tucker looking quite askance at the idea, but she may warm to it and Trevor may see out his time in this Assembly as a Green. Turning to the proposed amendments of the government and the ALP, Michael Moore or someone else mentioned the $1,500 amendment. That is actually the total for any financial year.

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