Page 4664 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 7 December 1994
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Again I come back to the issue involved here. You might think that is all terribly sad. The fact of the matter is that it is not terribly sad. I find those times some of the most useful and best times of my political life because people can come in and talk without fear or favour. I believe that it would be useful for everybody in this Assembly to go out and work behind a counter and to find out what the people of Canberra are thinking. As you would be aware, people like talking to their politicians. They like having input. That is exactly what the pharmacy is about. Recently we brought forward a policy which suggested that members of this Assembly should spend five to 10 days a year out there in the private sector. The private sector is saying, "Yes, because we do not believe that you politicians know what it is like. We do not believe that you know what you are legislating about half the time". Whether that is right or wrong, the point is that it does broaden horizons. I would like to finish with a quote from Voltaire. Voltaire said:
Never having been able to succeed in the world, he took his revenge by speaking ill of it.
That is Mr Berry.
MR STEVENSON (11.20): I take a contrary view to that of many of the Liberal speakers, and Mr Moore, on whether or not this is a silly matter. There is no doubt that this is an important matter to discuss in the parliament. That is a reasonable thing. It is right that a member of parliament should bring it up. I do not doubt that there are people in the community who from time to time think about whether or not members should be working. We would all understand, as Mr Berry would, that there are dozens of members of parliament in various houses around Australia who work at other jobs, or who sometimes work at other jobs. I do not doubt that there have been other debates on this subject. I think it is a reasonable and proper debate to bring up.
I am not going to comment as to why I think Mr Berry brought it up. It is relevant to talk about whether or not members have the capacity to do their job correctly. There is no doubt that, if some members work at a full-time job in another area, that may well cause problems for what they are supposed to be doing in serving their electorate; but people have different capacities. I know that some people can get more done in a day than some people can get done in a week. Some people have more time available. There is no doubt that a single mum in parliament with young children would not have as much time as a single man, because there are other responsibilities. That is perfectly acceptable. If someone had a job for 20 hours a week and worked another 80 hours a week in the Assembly, would anybody feel that they were getting short-changed? I would say not.
When I read the motion I felt that I might move some amendments to change it around the other way. It would read something like this:
Members so elected should engage in the activities of any business, trade or profession in the course of their term in the ACT Legislative Assembly so that they would have a greater understanding of the effects of the laws they pass.
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