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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 9 Hansard (21 August) . . Page.. 3093 ..

Mr Osborne: Or cards. Kids will have them at school.

MR BERRY: Well, that may be so. I have had my little joke. I think there is a need to somehow project this place into the community. I do not know how to do it and I am not quite sure that this is the answer. But if you televised this particular debate, for example, I think my claims about the throng of people hanging around the television at the Labor Club would probably be a bit of an overstatement. A lot of very serious debates that take place in this Assembly are worthy of being televised but whether they would compete with something like One hundred years of Four Corners is another question.

I think it is a fundamental part of democracy that we enable in an unfettered way all of the media outlets to have access to what goes on in this place. Information is freely available to people who might walk into the Assembly and information should be available to the media. But in the end it is going to boil down to who is going to be prepared to transmit the proceedings of the whole day. I think that is a different proposition.

There is also the option of streaming information through PCs and all that sort of stuff; and as TransACT comes online, with all of that capacity and all of those 28,000 people signed up for $8,000 each-it is all going to happen. Nevertheless, this is a worthy thing to do. It is something that I think will enhance the understanding of this place.

The education department of the Assembly has an important role to play in educating members of the public. In our own way we educate people about our own ideas, but there are people working in the education department of the Assembly who are trying to get the message to the younger generations. I think that is an extremely important issue for the future of the Assembly.

It might not happen in our time, but in future those young people will have a better understanding of the place-an understanding which is not held by people of our generation. Young people are the ones who might log on occasionally or perhaps look at the TV and say, "Well, I understand what's going on in there because I've been there and had a look at it all happening."

I am pleased to see that this legislation has been put forward and I look forward to some prosperous outcomes for democracy in this city. But I do not think we will ever have a council-style government. At every election we seem to hear that we are going to have a council-style government. I think we might see the red cape come out shortly.

Mr Humphries: It has been raised for years, Mr Berry.

MR BERRY: Yes, it has been raised at every election.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: The chair thanks gladiator Berry for his comments.

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