Page 790 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 13 April 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Below-the-Line Ticket Voting
MR HUMPHRIES: My question is to the Chief Minister, with her responsibility for electoral matters. The Chief Minister has emphatically ruled out Labor support for above-the-line ticket voting. At least, she has done so since her famous backflip of last December. She has been invited to rule out similarly Labor support for below-the-line ticket voting. She has not taken up the opportunity on any occasion that has been presented to her to do so. I ask her now: Will she cease to mince words and state unambiguously that Labor will or will not contemplate proposing or supporting a system of ticket voting below the line?
MS FOLLETT: I thank Mr Humphries for the question. I realise that it is somewhat unusual to be asked this kind of question when the legislation it concerns is listed for debate later on this afternoon. Nevertheless, I am quite happy to make the Government's position clear yet again. I have said quite categorically that the Government will not proceed with an above-the-line ticket voting option. I have made that clear in consultations with parties on the electoral legislation, I have made it clear in public statements of some months, and I am happy to make that clear again. Also, those members who have taken part in the consultation process on the legislation will have seen the amendments I have put forward to effect just such a position.
I have been asked by the media and now by Mr Humphries about a below-the-line ticket voting option. I have seen no such option. I have proposed no such option, nor will I.
Mr Humphries: Will you support it if you do?
MS FOLLETT: I consider that it is entirely hypothetical and beyond my province as a Minister to contemplate what might be put forward by some other member of this Assembly. I say to you: I have seen no such option. I have made it quite clear that I have seen these matters put forward in the media. The report I saw in the Canberra Times, which purported to be based on the consultation meeting we had last Friday, in my view was grossly inaccurate. There was no such proposal put forward at that meeting - none whatsoever.
Mr Berry: Who was the source? Mr Humphries?
MS FOLLETT: Mr Humphries was at a different meeting, which drew different conclusions and heard different things being said. I repeat that, as far as I am aware, there is no such option. If other members want to put that forward, including Mr Humphries, then the Government will be making up its mind on all of the amendments to this Bill - and there are a great number of them - in the course of debate. I have made the Government's position clear. We will not be supporting an above-the-line option. We have not put forward any other option. To the best of my knowledge, neither has anybody else. So the rest of it is pure speculation.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .