Page 3696 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 23 October 2013
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them, and I am quite confident the government can deal with the many issues that face us, from the basic delivery of services—which often sit within my portfolio of Territory and Municipal Services, and I refer to the bevy of people out every day getting the grass mowed, picking up the rubbish and those sorts of things to the best of their ability—through to important reforms, such as the one we passed through this place yesterday which brought a great deal of joy to members of our community and which are equally as important as those basic municipal services. As a territory and local government rolled into one, we need to deliver that full spectrum of initiatives.
We have seen, with the partnership we have been able to create between the Labor Party and the Greens, a stable government, and it shows that the two parties have been able to work together even though we remain independent and are not in a formal coalition. There is also substantial, dynamic policy discussion. Not only did this occur in the development of the parliamentary agreement—it would be fair to say there was some vigorous back and forth about what would ultimately be contained in that agreement—but it continues to occur as I discuss policy matters with those in the Labor Party on a whole range of items, whether it is delivering the agreement, the coming budget or the election promises that the ALP made. We continue to have a range of ongoing discussions.
One of the strengths of this approach is that we bring different perspectives to these issues. We work through them and ensure the best possible delivery. That is something I invite the Liberal Party to reflect on. The recent position from Mr Hanson to deal himself out of many of the issues that will come before the Assembly is an unfortunate one. I think it is a waste of opportunity in the sense that, throughout my time in the Assembly where there have been three parties present in this place, members have worked together on a range of issues. Madam Speaker, you and I did a lot of work last term on a range of Attorney-General’s issues where we were able to bring to the legislative process the community perspective from the various contacts we had and ultimately improve bills. That is an approach we should always take in this Assembly—to try and bring all perspectives we bring to this place to get the best possible outcomes for the community.
For example, the Greens have taken on responsibility for delivering three pieces of legislation under the parliamentary agreement. I am very pleased so far with the general engagement I have been able to have with the Labor Party on the development of those bills. I invite Mr Hanson and his colleagues to continue to engage on those bills, because we are talking about important matters such as the creation of officers of the parliament, something the Administration and Procedures Committee looked at last term and which is now being brought to fruition in this term.
This is not a piece of party-political legislation; this is about setting up important governance structures for this territory and trying to evolve them in ways that reflect modern thinking and best practice, and it is important that all of us engage in those discussions so we get outcomes that members of this Assembly can feel a sense of ownership of and feel we have delivered the best outcome for the Canberra community.
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