Page 2024 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 5 August 2014
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Again, I think self-government has served the people of the ACT very well, but it is up to members in this place in 2014 to make sure that governments of 2016, 2020 and 2024 are actually able to do the job that we are going to be asking them to do. The only way to do that is to increase the size of the Assembly.
I would say to Mr Hanson—again, keeping the love going today—that I genuinely appreciate the way that this has been conducted across the Assembly. I think that these matters are very easy to be lost in political fights and opportunities that come with dealing with more politicians. Mr Hanson chose to pursue it in another way—running the issue through his party as a democratic process but also reaching agreement with me that we would deal with this cooperatively and without slinging mud at people through the media.
I think the end result was that your political party, my political party and Shane Rattenbury, even though he has not agreed with us on the number, have actually been able to project a mature parliament, genuinely wrestling with issues of workload without political point scoring. Without that cooperation and without that commitment, this issue would have been lost and we would be stuck in this place not dealing with it in 2016 when the chances are that the issues being faced would be much worse and we would not be able to fix those until the 2020 election.
So I genuinely thank the willingness that has been displayed to deal with this in the way that we have. I think certainly Assemblies of the future could learn from this. Also, I think it reflects well on this Assembly.
MR COE (Ginninderra) (5.04): I had not intended to say any words in this debate but having heard from Mr Rattenbury I felt somewhat inspired to say a few words in response.
Mr Rattenbury: I’m a source of inspiration, Alistair. Don’t you hate that?
MADAM SPEAKER: Order, members! As I said before, this is not a conversation.
MR COE: Once again, Madam Speaker, I agree with Mr Rattenbury, because he does motivate me. He does motivate me. Sometimes in this chamber it is his comments which remind me why I am a Liberal. It is interesting hearing Mr Rattenbury talk about this issue. Of course, five-member electorates are almost immoral according to Mr Rattenbury. Five is just horrible; five is disastrous; five is terrible; five is anti-democratic; five is just absolutely horrendous for the people of Canberra. Seven, however, is the magical number. Seven or nine are just numbers that will bring peace and harmony to all the good people of Canberra; not five but seven.
One might say, “Why seven? Why nine? Why not 11 or 13 or 15?” Are they moral numbers, too, Madam Speaker? Who knows what Mr Rattenbury’s thinking on this is. But it is also curious to hear him say that it is unfair that some of them get 12 per cent and not get elected. In my quick peruse on my phone of past election results, I do not think there has been any candidate ever that has got 12 per cent who has not been elected. In fact, I do not think there has ever been a party that has collectively got
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