Page 649 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 4 July 1989
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committee ought to examine the question of electronic voting. I am far from convinced that this idea is without merit. I think that there is great opportunity to explore the idea of voting by punching numbers into a computer or some other electronic method. The result would be infinitely quicker; it would be almost instantaneous, and I think it is technically feasible. I certainly hope that the committee would take up that idea.
I share the concern of Ms Maher on the idea of the Federal Parliament Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters looking into our electoral system and making recommendations. I see it, however, as a safeguard. I would certainly not like to see, as I have said, certain electoral systems come into place in the ACT, but I hope, as Ms Maher has indicated, that we can take the initiative, that we can provide a clear and better direction for the ACT electoral system and one that will have the confidence of the people of the ACT.
DR KINLOCH (9.26): Mr Speaker, may I say how much I am impressed by the speeches tonight and the quality of what is being said. One does not have to agree with all of them, but it is a great range. May I immediately pay tribute to you, Mr Speaker, for stepping down and giving the speech you gave, setting some new initiatives. We have heard a great many initiatives here tonight, and I hope that this debate, as recorded in Hansard, will be widely read and that the committee which looks at this will come back to this issue of Hansard and see the many themes here tonight. May I be allowed, Mr Speaker, to exercise the right of rhetoric tonight, for the reason you will see.
Fellow citizens and legislators of this democratic Assembly, I thank citizen Duby for his motion and citizen Stevenson for his amendment, to which he has spoken so carefully and thoughtfully. Earlier this evening some of us had the pleasure of attending the opening of an exhibition at the National Library of an extraordinary collection of French revolutionary pamphlets held in the National Library collection, backed by a special display of posters provided by the Government of France. It was a great joy to me to hear my friend and colleague Bernard Collaery pay tribute to Sir Harold White for the acquiring of those historic documents of liberte, egalite, fraternite. I commend that exhibit to all members of this Assembly. I hope to go back to it many times. It will be here until October.
What were we celebrating at that opening? We were certainly not celebrating current French policy in the Pacific. We were not celebrating French colonialism and imperialism. On 14 July I plan to oppose those policies at a public gathering, and I hope many will join me. We were, however, hailing this evening the bicentennial of the fall of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 and the events of the following weeks, including the declaration of the rights of man and the citizen. We were rejoicing in freedom of
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