Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

He did not say anything worth noting. In fact, he says very little about anything that is worth noting. Paragraph 3.61 of this report says:

On balance, the Committee considers that there is a role for the Commonwealth Government to play in assisting the Northern Territory work through some of the unresolved issues of statehood, without driving the agenda.

I fully understand that there are contentious issues here, like the proportionality issue about the numbers of members of the House of Representatives and the Senate that the Northern Territory should have—and I have a particular view about that which is probably closer to the views of many in this place than others might think. But they are issues which need to be legitimately discussed with the people of the Northern Territory and they should be assisted in that discussion by work being undertaken by the Commonwealth government. I commend the report to the House.

Debate (on motion by Mr Neville) adjourned.

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