Page 4316 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 30 November 1994
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PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION (HARE-CLARK)
ENTRENCHMENT BILL 1994
MR HUMPHRIES (10.35): Madam Speaker, I present the Proportional Representation (Hare-Clark) Entrenchment Bill 1994.
Title read by Clerk.
MR HUMPHRIES: I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
Madam Speaker, this legislation is designed to honour the decision made by voters of the Territory at the referendum held in 1992. Unfortunately, it is clear that elements of that decision are not above the politics of this place and of our political system. That fact contributes to the great cynicism displayed by voters about politicians and about the political process. This Bill will not cure that; but it will go some way towards making it clear, I hope, that the majority of the Assembly - perhaps all of the Assembly, if a press release that I have seen is any indication - is of the view that the issue of our electoral system, which is the fundamental machinery of our democratic process, is to be put above politics and is not to be susceptible to manipulation on the basis of a perceived political interest or advantage to be gained by a particular change to that system.
The zenith of that cynicism was reached at about this time last year, when, as members will recall, an attempt was made by this Government to mutilate the Hare-Clark system. That was a deeply cynical exercise, and it outraged a great many citizens of the ACT. It was that outrage on the part of ACT citizens that gave rise to an announcement, about one week after the Bill was introduced, that the Government would back down on that legislation. "Rosemary's rotation" was the way it was referred to at the time. Yet, Madam Speaker, what was said by the Government - and particularly by Ms Follett - at that time, when announcing that the Government would not proceed with that particular above-the-line voting exercise, was very significant. What she said in her press release was this:
The Government had sought to ensure that every Canberra voter was able to cast a valid vote at the next Legislative Assembly election
... other parties in the Assembly are determined to limit that choice.
The Government has made this decision - that is, to withdraw the legislation or to amend it -
to allow negotiation to take place on the Bill with other parties in the Assembly.
There was no indication in that that the Government regretted or withdrew from its position of wanting to make those changes. Indeed, the Chief Minister reinforced that impression by comments that she made on 31 January this year, on ABC radio, when she said:
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