Page 3006 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 5 December 1989
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that this Government, by virtue of having just five members in a chamber of 17, has been unable to date to provide the Territory with stability and certainty.
Mr Wood: They sure had good policies, though.
MR HUMPHRIES: Well, some of them have gone by the board too, Mr Wood, but I will come to those in a minute.
The ability to set the agenda is fundamental to good government. It is fundamental because, without the numbers, a program of good government easily slides into a mire of mediocrity and confusion. The Chief Minister said on the radio this morning, and I think she has repeated it here today, that her administration has set an agenda for government. That is true, but so in a sense has every other party in this Assembly. At present the ACT does not clearly march to any of these agendas. No one hand sits on the tiller of the ship of state, I would submit.
The fact is that this Government has run into trouble on many occasions and on many important issues. For example, we tried to set the agenda on the question of occupational health and safety, but the direction that that legislation took was radically altered by the members of this Assembly, and I would submit rightly so.
The Government tried further to block the police move-on powers. This house supported those powers. It tried to set the agenda with its bid only a few days ago to raise millions of dollars worth of revenue with a legitimising tax on X-rated videos. This also was defeated. And it tried to get rid of the hospitals interim board of management. But the Assembly, I am proud to say, effectively vetoed this when it passed a motion of confidence in that interim hospitals board. In other words, this Government's lack of control over this chamber is reflected in the high degree of uncertainty with which, notwithstanding Mr Wood's comments, citizens of this Territory look to this Government's program. This Government, I will concede, has been very successful in expanding new frontiers in rhetoric, but that, I am afraid to say, is about all it has.
Last week an opinion poll was published in the Canberra Times - Mr Wood has already referred to that - which showed a large degree of dissatisfaction with the performance of this Assembly. That concerns me. But I ask: why was this so? I believe that there being so many hands pulling the ship of state in so many different directions has been a major contributor to that dissatisfaction on the part of the people of this Territory.
That, of course, is not in itself an argument for leaving any one group or any one person with his or her hand on that tiller. It is certainly not an argument for leaving a minority of five people out of a chamber of 17 to run this Territory. The ALP in this Assembly represents less than a
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