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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 6 Hansard (15 June) . . Page.. 1950 ..
MR MOORE (continuing):
I am not prepared to support an inconsistent approach. The only reason that Mr Stanhope was persuasive then, and we will come back to it, was that he talked about consistency and not having a slave clause. I indicated to him then that we would expect him to show consistency. He has not done that, so we will come back to that.
Mr Rugendyke has asked me on a number of occasions whether we have gone beyond the worst of it with this bill and I have said, "No, it is getting worse." I think we have actually hit rock bottom here. This is the loophole amendment. The amendment here seeks to restore proper exception for small donations instead of having the loophole, so it is a good opportunity to speak about the loophole. It is interesting that we have a combining of Labor and Liberal here. I am not going to go on too long about it because I think we have done enough in the in-principle stage, but it is interesting that we cannot manage to look across the Pacific at the American system and realise that the fundamental issue that Americans are trying to deal with in terms of their electoral system is how they can prevent the parties being so strongly influenced by big money. That is one of the fundamentals that ordinary American people are speaking about.
I have to say with regard to this issue that I find it flabbergasting that people who are really interested in democracy do not take the opportunity they have to say that they are not prepared to build into the system something that could lead to that sort of thing. It is flabbergasting that one party can allow another party to do it.
Mr Berry: Why don't you just argue the merits of your case and stop attacking other people, Michael?
MR MOORE: Mr Berry asks why I am not arguing the merits of my case. I am talking about the fundamentals of democracy and drawing attention to what has happened to democracy in America and some of the great weaknesses there. The system there is still a democratic system and, therefore, is far better than many of the other systems in the world, but it has a great weakness. The great weakness is the influence that money has on the system. The argument that I am putting here is that we wish to learn from and avoid the mistakes of other places, Mr Berry.
The point that I am making here is that we have a democratic system that is amongst the best in the world. We have to make sure that we strengthen it, not weaken it. What we see before us is an attempt to weaken it and what I am trying to do is to reinforce that possibility and strengthen our system by pointing out that the very good legislation that currently exists will be undermined by any other approach.
Suspension of standing order 76
Motion (by Mr Humphries ) agreed to, with the concurrence of an absolute majority:That standing order 76 be suspended for the remainder of the sitting.
MR RUGENDYKE
: (10.52): I was asking Mr Moore when we would see the worst of it with this bill. This is the culmination of the scandal. It is interesting that Mr Osborne and I cop a fair bit and are pilloried quite often in this place because we have certain views, but this experience tonight goes the other way. The two major parties here are
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