David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

This bill is an attack on territory rights. The people of the ACT fought for 25 years to have the Andrews bill overturned, which went through on the voices last year. There was unanimous support from the Senate to allow the ACT to debate and make laws that affect them. Last week, we lost a person who campaigned hard to repeal that bill. She sat behind me in the chamber as it was debated. She dedicated the end of her life to seeing that done. My commitment to her and to many others in our community was that I will stand up for the rights of territorians to have our own democratically elected Legislative Assembly and to hold it to account, rather than see federal overreach into the affairs of the territory. This is a principle we must stand by.

I will not be supporting this bill and I urge my colleagues to not turn their backs on territory rights after we have just finally got them back. I engaged with a number of people in the ACT on this issue who were supportive of the takeover of Calvary and to people very much opposed to it who wrote to both the chief minister and health minister saying they believe there should be an inquiry at the Legislative Assembly level. The two committees who could do that both decided not to hold on inquiry. Yes, we know that the committees are government-controlled, but Canberrans will be able to hold the government to account at the next territory election. We do live in a democracy here in the ACT and it is our democratic right to be able to decide at the next election whether or not we approve of the way that this and other issues have been handled.

I thank the Senate for the opportunity to speak on this. I will not be supporting Senator Canavan's bill.