Page 667 - Week 02 - Thursday, 20 March 2014
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There are obviously some other matters that are being pursued concurrently with this, including the establishment of a sixth minister, which the opposition supports, as an important initiative to enhance the effectiveness of this place. I am encouraged that we had a discussion in the Assembly this morning with regard to committees and an improvement in the management of committees. I think that is good. I hope that this committee will lead to what we would all want, which is a more effective and capable Assembly.
I certainly commend the motion to the Assembly. As I said, the Liberal opposition will be supporting the motion.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (4.49): I am pleased to speak to this motion. I support the establishment of this committee. I think it is timely to consider these matters and to do it now given the position that the Liberal Party recently took to support the five-by-five model. It points to a significant range of changes for the conduct and the operation of the Assembly. I think it is quite appropriate to do some thinking now about what by-products flow out of those changes and what steps might need to be taken early on to facilitate the bigger picture change.
I am sure there will be a range of matters that will be revealed, some of which perhaps will be easily addressed and others that will need a bit more careful thought. But I think having a committee like this is a good way to do it. I certainly welcomed the discussions I had with Mr Hanson and his thoughts about the composition of the committee. I thank him for his feedback on that.
Looking at the other matters, including the issues arising from the Assembly election 2012 report from the Electoral Commission and the donations issues, putting them all together into one place is a sensible approach to take. I will be very pleased to support the motion. I suspect I know who the Greens will be nominating for the committee. It should be pretty easy to sort out, but I will get back to you once we have had a caucus meeting.
I observe that my party has some reservations about the model that is to be put forward in the legislation later in the year in the sense that the five-by-five model gives cause for concern to the ACT Greens. We made a submission to the expert reference group in which we argued for electorates of seven or even nine members in the view that this provided a more representative model in the ACT Assembly and that a five-member electorate system tends to favour a two-party system. The two older parties tend to perform more strongly in that environment.
That is a concern the Greens have expressed, but it is quite clear that there is strong support for the five-by-five model in this place. I should be clear, because there seems to have been some uncertainty. We were certainly never advocating the 35-member approach that was canvassed in the expert reference group report. Our view was that something in the region of 21 to 27 members was appropriate, whether that was three by seven or three by nine. We have even canvassed the question of whether you could have slightly different sized electorates if you want to get to 25—perhaps doing two eights and a nine.
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