John Madigan (Victoria, Democratic Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

When the Constitution Alteration (Recognition of Local Government) Bill, which is what today's MPI is about, originally came up, I intended to support it. Generally, the DLP and I support any call for a referendum, because there is no better example of democracy than giving the people a direct voice in the running of their country and the shaping of their Constitution. It is for this reason I introduced the Citizen Initiated Referendum Bill, which is currently before committee. A democracy cannot function properly if the political representatives of the nation usurp all power to themselves. Quite frankly, we have seen some incredible examples of that with recent governments.

Unfortunately, I find myself in the position of not supporting this call for a referendum, because to do so would be to become complicit in eroding the democratic rights of the Australian people. How can we accept that the funding of the yes and no cases for this referendum should be determined by how many parliamentarians voted for it in the House of Representatives and by how many local councils support it? The only people who are entitled to change the Australian Constitution are the Australian people. It is not up to local government, it is not up to state parliaments and it is certainly not up to the Senate or the House of Representatives.

If you are trying to say that we are the people who were elected to represent the Australian people and are therefore capable of deciding everything for our constituents, you are kidding yourselves. If you want to argue that, why not go back and count what percentage of the vote each parliamentarian and councillor received and apportion the funds according to that? Yes, that is a nonsense argument, but it is infinitely fairer than the undemocratic and, more to the point, despotic attempt to skew the debate we have before us. If the funding were fairly apportioned as it should be, I would support the call for a referendum. But, with this unbelievable infringement of the democratic process as the only option, I simply cannot accept it and will vote against it.

However, if the government were to decide against this ridiculous position and grant equal funding I would gladly support the democratic process of putting the question to the people. That should not be misconstrued as my support for the intention of the referendum. Neither I nor the Democratic Labor Party agrees with the constant attack of successive federal governments on the rights of the states. This deliberate attempt to further undermine the powers of the states should be seen for what it is—one step further along the road to the removal of state governments and the consolidation of all power in the federal government. This has been a platform of the ALP since the 1960s and is one that the DLP has never agreed to.

I will not vote in favour of this referendum at the election, and the DLP will campaign against it. But the question here is the fairness of the funding and, as I have said, I cannot support the bill unless that is improved. The only people who can change the Australian Constitution are the Australian people, and we are kidding ourselves if we think it is up to us. We had better stop eroding the rights of the Senate and the job it is supposed to do as the true house of review that represents the States.