Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I note the interjection from Senator Macdonald. Doing away with the states altogether would involve proper recognition of local government along the way. I do not want to over-inject our view as a party into the intent of this motion, which is to get recognition across all party lines of the strong support for local government. That is the intent and we take the opportunity to indicate our particular view as a party on that issue.

It is also our view that a referendum on constitutional recognition would be valuable, and in an ideal world maybe that could be combined with a referendum to downgrade the states as well. But we are not here to beat up on the states; we are here to support local government, and the Democrats welcome the opportunity to do that and to speak in support of this amendment.