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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Thursday, 26 August 2004) . . Page.. 4444 ..

I conclude, Mr Speaker, simply by echoing all of those comments you made about all of those other people that members of this place do rely on so extensively. I quite genuinely wish everybody in this place all the best in the coming election and for the future.

Valedictory

MR CORNWELL (11.45): Mr Speaker, it has been a long journey, as the Chief Minister said, beginning in 1974, and I suppose these final comments tonight are of minor historical interest because I am the last member of the original advisory assembly who is still here. In those early days we struggled for community recognition and acceptance. That has not changed markedly, at least to the extent that I believe we still seek some acceptance out there in the community. Members, I have to say that I think that it is our own fault. I would like to say a little more of that later.

My departure gives me an opportunity to address a number of topics that I believe are important, but my remarks should not be taken as personal criticisms. They are being put forward in the interests of the people of the ACT whom we all represent. The size of the Assembly makes the governance of the ACT very demanding for individual ministers and really does need to be addressed. Either a way has to be found to increase the numbers here or to distribute the ministerial workload more equitably or else the increasing complexities of government will overwhelm whoever is in power, the bureaucracy will continue to run Canberra and the worthy concept of genuine ministerial responsibility will be diminished.

Care and responsibility need to be exercised, I believe, by the government and especially by the Assembly itself in the imposition of more and more rules, regulations and laws upon the people of the ACT. The very size and usually the composition of the Assembly make it easy for any member to introduce legislation for which votes can sometimes be bartered for on the floor without necessarily having the support of the majority of the electorate. I would ask members to consider whether a legislative proposal will be beneficial to most people or simply another legal impost to satisfy the desires of some minority group or a vehicle perhaps to provide personal media publicity.

I believe that the Assembly needs to tighten up many of its procedures. I am pleased that the administration and procedure committee is examining the standing orders. I think that we have become too much of a talk shop, as we may have noticed this evening.

I said earlier that I would come back to the continuing need for this Assembly to have acceptance in the community. I think that we have been too timid in promoting this important democratic institution. It is more important to the daily lives of people who live in Canberra than federal parliament ever will be and, I might add, the salaries are not commensurate. I ask: why should anyone respect elected representatives who are paid a relative pittance and, further, will the Assembly attract top-flight candidates if members continue to be paid the current amount of remuneration?

I believe that the answer is no. Therefore, there is the risk of attracting candidates for the wrong reason—for power, for prestige, even in some cases for better money than they would earn elsewhere. Even if having higher salaries might threaten the existing incumbents by bringing out better candidates and even if having 23 or 25 members might

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