Page 3031 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 5 December 1989
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Mr Berry: Well, Mr Speaker, the note was a handwritten one.
Mr Humphries: It was not a handwritten one.
MR SPEAKER: Order! I really believe that that was not taking the side of anyone. I was correcting the record.
Mr Moore: On a point of order, Mr Speaker; it certainly was. Mr Humphries at that time had a note prepared for him. If my memory serves me, too, it was not handwritten, but he signed it. As a Minister, he is going to have a lot of things written for him which he is going to sign, and he has to learn to check them. It is his responsibility. We seek that you be more impartial, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Be careful, Mr Moore.
MR STEVENSON (4.51): Mr Speaker, the important matter is how the people of Canberra will benefit. Ms Follett said that what is important is that the people of Canberra be put first. I agree entirely. It was an interesting situation that, with eight people on my left and eight on my right, it allowed me to have the balance of power up to recent times. With power comes responsibility. What I am interested in is, as the Chief Minister said, how it will benefit the people of Canberra. They should be put first.
We have been surveying fairly extensively what the people of Canberra want. Of politicians they want, firstly, honesty. They also want representation. They want politicians that do their will. In the balance of power, for as long as it lasted, I did not want anything. It was asked of me by the media at different times, "What do you want?". I said, "I don't want anything". But I am quite sure that the people of Canberra want some things. We have surveyed that as well. What they want is the opportunity to have their will heard. That could be called the voters' veto. That was referred to before.
Mr Humphries referred to "Dennis Stevenson's voters' veto". I wish it were the case. I truly do. But it was not mine. The Labor Party had it as a major plank for 70 years, before I was even born!. The Liberal Party introduced a Bill in Western Australia, and in Tasmania. The Democrats have been hard at it, long before I even heard about it, for over 10 years. So it is not my voters' veto. It is the people's voters' veto. It will certainly be introduced. The people will make sure of that.
There was something else which people wanted and which I feel we should give them. It is not just the people of Canberra. It is the people of Australia. Every Attorney-General in Australia has called for the banning of pornographic videos. They did not do that simply because they thought it was a good idea. They did it because of public involvement - people demonstrating that the electorate has the true power, even though they often forget that, but that is where power lies.
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