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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (29 November) . . Page.. 3449 ..
MR WOOD (continuing):
I do, if they can remember, that the figure of 17 was a mad stab, a mad guess, with no foundation at all. It was just a matter of deciding how many we could have. We could not have too many and we could not have too few. We had to ask ourselves what sounded like a reasonable number. No thought was given to whether the population of Canberra at the time could sustain 17 members and that was an adequate measure of representation. There was none of that. It was a mad guess. Now someone wants to lock that mad guess into the basis for what we should have in the future. That just will not wash. Mr Kaine would know that. We could go back to 15, Mr Kaine. I am not saying that that is the way to go, either.
Mr Kaine: It's a good round number.
MR WOOD: I am not sure that it is a round one, but let us not make any false assumptions here about what might happen. I do not want the government now going out there and saying that the Labor Party wants the Assembly to have 21 members because that is simply not the case. We will accept the debate in general terms, but no more than that. So let us not see any weaselling around the situation from people on the other side of the house.
Amendment agreed to.
MS TUCKER (8.34): I ask for leave to move an amendment to the motion and to speak to it without closing the debate.
Leave granted.
MS TUCKER: I move:
Omit all words after "requests the Chief Minister to", substitute:
"(1) undertake discussions with the Commonwealth Minister for Territories on the possibility of amendments to the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 to devolve to the Assembly the power to determine the number of Members;
(2) undertake public consultation on-
(i) the desirability or otherwise of expanding the size of the Assembly; and
(ii) the specific proposal to increase the Assembly to 21 Members, with 7 Members representing each of 3 electorates; and
(iii) other possible combinations of Member numbers and the distribution of Members across electorates;
with the aim of commencing any change to the Assembly from the election scheduled for 2004;
(3) report to the Assembly on the implementation of this motion by the end of June 2001.".
A fair bit has happened since I moved my motion. There has been a lot of discussion in the media and in the Assembly. I am really pleased to see what has happened tonight. Things went a bit sideways just then with Mr Wood. I hope that Mr Smyth does not intend to make a political issue out of it again. What we are seeing tonight is a commitment from both of the major parties not to make political points out of this issue.
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