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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 7 Hansard (24 June) . . Page.. 2388 ..
MR STEFANIAK
(continuing):This is something that the government obviously wants to do. It is obvious, too, from what is contained in the act that this is something that the government should be able to fund from its resources. You are not dealing with idiots, Mr Stanhope. You are dealing with intelligent people-your government officials and, indeed, the judiciary, who will be looking at this measure. There should not be a need for this extra money.
Of course, there is the more substantive issue of this territory being the first state or territory in Australia to go down this path. Mr Stanhope says, "What about rights? Don't you want rights?"Yes, I do, Mr Stanhope. I cherish rights, I cherish our democratic tradition. But first and foremost, I am really worried that any act you bring in here will take away more rights from more citizens than it will give to other classes of citizens. I am not alone in feeling that. I have some immense worries about how that act will work.
On balance, I cannot see how it can possibly be a positive rather than a negative, and I do not think I am alone in holding that view. The position taken by the opposition has some very powerful supporters around Australia, not the least of whom are Premier Carr, that very sensible premier; and another Labor man who happens to reside across the border, Premier Beattie, also has some grave concerns.
The Australian public has looked at this issue before. It has probably not done so to the extent that you are putting on the table, but certainly it has looked at issues around this that were raised in the 1988 referendum. The Australian public has consistently rejected ideas of going down this path and it has done so for very good reasons-indeed, reasons that go back to our system of common law, starting with Magna Carta; our own development as a nation; our constitution; and the fact that human rights-type legislation has been incorporated into legislation over the last 50 years and certainly, in a very big way, over the last 20 or 30 years.
We have developed bodies like scrutiny of bills committees to look at these issues. Not only do we have a legal system and conventions that go back 800 years, but also we have a system of statute law that continues to evolve and develop and move with the times. It seems to me that in every single country that has gone down the path advocated by the government there are more problems than there are benefits.
I know that this is a pet project of yours, Chief Minister, but no-one in the community, except maybe a few academic groups and certain members of the Labor Party, is calling for it. What utter nonsense it is to say that it is one of the things you were elected on.
Mr Stanhope
: We campaigned on it.MR STEFANIAK
: Yes, you campaigned on that and a number of other issues. I am darn sure, Chief Minister, that that was one which no-one in the community was remotely interested in, and I am sure that should tell you something about our very advanced, highly sophisticated system of democracy in this territory, which you tamper with at your peril.
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