AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRATS PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION ANNIVERSARY
The Hon. ELISABETH KIRKBY [7.89 p.m.]: Tonight I pay tribute to my party, the Australian Democrats, because today is the anniversary of the election of our first member of Parliament. Robin Millhouse was elected to the South Australian seat of Mitcham on 17 September 1977 and went on to become a judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia, where he serves to this day. I also thank the thousands of members and parliamentarians who have served the party tirelessly over the past 20 years, since that auspicious beginning. I pay tribute to their efforts to promote our policies and pursue accountability.
Without them we would not have grown and gone on to hold the balance of power in the Senate and in two State parliaments. Without them we would not have grown to the point at which we were able to change the face of the upper Houses in South Australia, New South Wales and most recently Western Australia, where my colleagues the Hon. Helen Hodgson and the Hon. Norm Kelly are part of the new wind of change that swept control of the Legislative Council away from the coalition for the first time in 103 years. Many Australian political parties have come and gone since Federation, yet only four have stood the test of time in the Federal arena. I am very proud that my party is one of those four. Our Federal leader, Senator Cheryl Kernot, encapsulated the frustration that a growing number of Australians have with our political system when she recently stated in a lecture:
There is a price for our cynical acceptance of the dishonest and farcical rituals that currently dominate our political processes and that price is the further entrenchment in Australia of a style of politics where tactics are more important than honesty, where the ends always justify the means, and where lying is just not expected - it is tolerated, encouraged and rewarded.
And it is in that political climate that the Democrats have forged a role in contemporary Australian politics both as a political insurance against the excesses of the rituals and as a party which gives greater focus to policy outcomes than to point scoring.
An increasingly politically sophisticated electorate has begun to realise that the Democrats have protected the independence of the Parliament under both Liberal and Labor administrations. People are demanding more involvement in the political process, and the Australian Democrats have brought the political process closer to the people by establishing and expanding the legislative committee process. I look forward to seeing many more Democrats elected to Parliament during the next 20 years. I know that we will be in government one day.