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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 10 Hansard (30 August) . . Page.. 3753 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

In mentioning the harms that come out of oppositional politics as a system, I want to make it very clear that I am not pointing to the opposition. I am talking generically. The first harm is an attitude of disrespect for people who have different opinions. The second is a worsening attitude by people to their politicians when they see the lack of respect in which politicians hold one another.

This leads to the next step: a worsening attitude to democracy and democratic systems. It damages the reputation of individual members. It also develops a system of protective behaviours, no matter where you sit within the legislature. This applies not only to the legislature but also to the public service.

One of the most damaging impacts of oppositional politics is risk-averse behaviour. Instead of giving it a try, even if something may go wrong, the focus becomes entirely directed on what can go wrong. If you try 10 times and things go wrong once, it means you have achieved nine things. Risk-averse behaviour by our public servants and politicians will result in much less being achieved over 20 years than would have been achieved otherwise.

Let us go back to the primary goals about a better society and a more just society. Whatever your personal primary goals were, they are undermined by risk-averse behaviour. The alternative is to forgo opposition, practise cooperation and gain the benefits. I say this as somebody leaving the chamber. In presenting these ideas, I am not pointing the finger at anybody.

The alternative is to forgo oppositional practices, to seek cooperation and to pick up the opposite of what I have mentioned-the benefits. The benefits are an increase in respect for people who have different opinions and an increase in community respect for politicians and democratic institutions. That will allow members elected to this place to achieve more.

There is a course of action for all participants of the political process. That course of action, first and foremost, is to put a greater emphasis on building rather than destroying. Each of us may come into this place with the intention of doing that, but the oppositional politics takes over. I would like to quote from Mr Stanhope's inaugural speech on 28 April 1998, but not in a pejorative way. He said:

I want to stress that we will seek to enhance the role of Opposition so that we simply do not have the job of opposing. The make-up of the Assembly, in which no party or coalition has a majority, will allow us ... to take the initiative in delivering better laws and better governance for the people of the ACT.

Not only Mr Stanhope's inaugural speech but almost anybody's inaugural speech reiterates the sentiments of delivering a better society and behaving in a better way. But how many of us in this place have fallen down in the practice? I do not mean on the odd occasion when we get incredibly uptight and half a day later say, "Sorry about that. Let us have a beer." We have all been through that process. The falling down is to step away from what we set out to achieve and to engage in sustained, deliberate, personal attacks on somebody's credibility-in other words, to practise oppositional politics. That is not to be confused with the human slip-ups when we are tired and have a go at somebody. Nor is it to be confused with the healthy tension that occurs over ideas in this Assembly.

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