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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 11 Hansard (22 October) . . Page.. 3903 ..

MS DUNDAS (continuing):

of the Senate, has said, it would make the Prime Minister a virtual dictator. Australia is a proud and vibrant democracy and does not want or deserve a dictatorship. The system is not perfect and can always be made better, but not by making things less democratic.

The answer as the Democrats see it was first put forward by a governor of New York in the past who said, "All the evils of democracy can be cured by more democracy."Yes, the Democrats have put forward their own proposal for parliamentary reform, but it is not about rewriting the government's proposal. It is about changing the idea of what the debate is about from just being on the Senate to being on the entire parliament so that we can make the democratic system of the entire federal parliament better.

That is what I believe the Greens are doing by putting forward a proposal for reform of the House of Representatives. They are taking advantage of the opportunity that has been put forward by this debate to try to broaden the scope of the debate. The Democrats' main proposition is that the Senate works well and as intended by the Constitution, but we can always make the parliament work even better. We want to make the Senate and the federal parliament generally work better.

Some ideas have been put forward by the Democrats' federal leader, Senator Andrew Bartlett. They include: plebiscites on disputed legislation to give power back to the people; requiring parliamentary approval for going to war and the adopting of treaties; eliminating the Senate's ability to block supply of the ordinary services of government; reform of the House of Representatives to inject mechanisms of accountability in procedure; improving the regulation of political parties and stamping out donations that have strings attached; improving the accountability of ministers and staffers to combat government secrecy and abuse of power; and removing outdated components of the Constitution that prevent public servants and dual citizens from nominating for election to parliament, so that we do have greater democracy and greater accountability, which I think we all agree are great principles that we should be striving for.

The Democrats want to tackle the real problems in the parliament-the lack of accountability of political parties, ministers and their staff and the unchecked powers of the Prime Minister, such as the power to call elections at whim, sign international treaties and take our nation to war. We also want to look at the unrepresentative nature of the House of Representatives. That is what this debate should be about, not cynical attacks on the power of a Senate that is just doing its job.

That is why I support the motion put forward today that we reject what the Prime Minister is saying and that we call on our own Chief Minister to make clear to the federal government that we recognise how parliaments can work well, the importance of democracy and the need to strengthen democracy, as opposed to the proposal to weaken it put forward by the Prime Minister.

MR STANHOPE (Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Environment and Minister for Community Affairs) (11.47): The Prime Minister, as has been discussed through this motion, has proposed constitutional changes to remove the Senate's ability to block legislation. He made the proposal first in a speech to the Liberal Party's national convention in Adelaide on 8 June.

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