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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 6 Hansard (15 June) . . Page.. 1919 ..

MR KAINE: What you are trying to do is to-

Ms Tucker: Of course an incumbent has an advantage.

MR KAINE: I spoke about this the other day. What this legislation does is put hurdles in the way. We started off with this grand vision of the Hare-Clark system with the Robson rotation. The beauty of it, we were told, is that it opens up opportunity for Independents and small parties who do not have the resources that the bigger parties have. That was supposed to be the big advantage of the electoral system. It has worked fine for nearly 10 years, and now somebody thinks we have to put these extra hurdles in there in the way of Independents.

Ms Tucker: But not Independents in the Assembly unless they are here.

MR KAINE: It does not matter whether we are members of this place-

Ms Tucker: So here it's easy-peasy.

MR KAINE: Oh, Mr Speaker-

MR SPEAKER: Yes, I do have to ask-

MR KAINE: Everybody has their say until somebody stands up and says things they do not like, and then everybody wants to have their say.

MR SPEAKER: Ms Tucker, you do not normally interject. I am shocked. In fact, I am appalled.

Ms Tucker: I apologise.

MR KAINE: I notice that I do not get these interjections when I am saying things that everybody likes. It is only when I am saying things that people do not like that I get them.

MR SPEAKER: I am surprised you could ever be heard, Mr Kaine, but never mind.

MR KAINE: If it was good enough for Mr Osborne and Mr Rugendyke to stand for election for this place three years ago as an Independent group, by getting a couple of signatures and going along and paying their $250 and registering, why is it not okay this year? Why do people like Ms Tucker and others deem it necessary or desirable to put additional hurdles in the way? The only reason that I can think of is that you want to get rid of the Independents because they are a bit of a nuisance and they take some of the votes that you might otherwise get. When they get elected they can be a bit of a nuisance because sometimes they do not vote the way you would like them to.

I made the point the other day. I did not intend to speak at any length at this stage of the debate, but the fact is that we are still having people putting up these propositions that Independents should be brought up to the point where they are competing on the same basis as members of major parties. Well, I am sorry to tell you that we do not

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