Page 1527 - Week 04 - Thursday, 7 April 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
We need to look at that against the background that the right to vote and the right to participate in the political process is something which we particularly value here in the ACT and in Australia generally, and for which people are dying overseas in the conflicts we have seen where democracy is starting to get a foothold. I think it is so important that, when we talk about the fundamental principles which govern the ACT Legislative Assembly, we do not just think of a good idea from one person, which in this case we believe it is, from the Electoral Commissioner, and then just discuss it, vote on it and pass it here. Generally, things get passed on party lines here, anyway. We need to be able to say that the community was given its opportunity to have a say.
When I looked into it, as the deputy chair of the committee last time, I found that the community engagement was not all that wide. If people go back and have a look at the committee report, they will find that the submissions to the committee’s inquiry were quite few. I had hoped, for example, that academia might have been engaged in the proposal to increase the size of the Assembly or increase its tenure, but I was very much disappointed about that. I would hope that I am not disappointed again. For the people who find it quite amusing to write to the Canberra Times and belt this so-called toy parliament, for example, who find that they can slag off about the members and the processes in this place, we are now giving them an opportunity to do it officially. They can come before the committee—either by doing it in writing or appearing before the inquiry, whichever the committee decides is the best way forward.
I want to take this opportunity, because I know that the media are listening, to say that the media should cover this. I want to have the conversation with the community, with its parliament having a conversation with the community, about a proposal that the Electoral Commissioner believes is a good idea.
It needs to be stated strongly that this is not a referral to a committee of an idea that the government has come up with. This is a series of recommendations from the Electoral Commissioner, with which this side of the house actually agrees. Nonetheless, it is still a recommendation from the Electoral Commissioner.
This particular Electoral Commissioner has been here since day one and has seen the evolution of processes as we have gone through the electoral process—for example, electronic voting and how that was applied. It was this Electoral Commissioner who pushed that proposal forward; it got legs and now it is an integral part of the way we do things. It is an integral part of our democratic process.
Indeed, any recommendation that comes from the Electoral Commissioner is about our democratic process, and we really need to not have it dealt with here in the same way that we may deal with a planning reg. We need to make sure that every person who is entitled to vote has an opportunity to participate in this.
One of the things that we are talking about here is lowering the age of people to actually register for their vote. I have to tell you, Madam Assistant Speaker, trying to get people aged 25 and younger engaged in the political process, which is about their
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video