Page 5895 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
As I have said, the ACT Greens support the notion that we should have the same legislative capacity as the states. We believe the ACT is a mature and stable democracy capable of representing the best interests of the people of Canberra. Unlike the Canberra Liberals, we think we are as good as other state parliaments, and that is why we do not support the amendment put forward by Mrs Dunne.
We have some support for Mr Stanhope’s amendment, which has just appeared, but we do think the review is sufficient at this stage. We really have to look more closely at the amendment put forward by Mr Stanhope to understand how it interacts with Ms Porter’s motion. We will take a look at that amendment before we can provide support at this stage.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (10.22): I have only just seen this amendment, Mr Speaker, so I might just speak to it briefly. We are just working through the amendment as we go. There are elements of it that pick up some of what Mrs Dunne has put in her amendment, so there are obviously parts of it that we support. There is some language that I would amend, and I think we would potentially be in a position to support it with some amended language. But we have not really had an opportunity to negotiate this yet.
If we have a few minutes, there is the possibility that we may get to a point where we can agree on something. So I just say to the Chief Minister that, if we can have a few moments to discuss this, we might be able to come up with some words that we agree on. I do not know if that is the approach the Chief Minister wants to take on this.
For instance, we have said on a number of occasions that we believe the Assembly should be able to determine its own size, but we believe that should not be done through a simple majority. We believe there should be a special majority for that in order to avoid one party being able to impose its will in terms of the size of the Assembly. We would want to add some words to paragraph 2(a) such as “with appropriate safeguards” or “with a special majority”.
We support the intent of paragraph 2(b) but with all of these things we have said there needs to be some checks and balances on the power of any majority within the ACT Assembly. We are not in a position to support the amendment in its current form. With some time, I think we would make some minor amendments which would allow us to support it. It is really over to the government as to whether they want to negotiate on this. As it is, we are not able to support it.
Debate (on motion by Ms Bresnan) adjourned to a later hour.
Bimberi Youth Justice Centre—proposed inquiry
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (10.27): I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes:
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video