BANKSIA HILL DETENTION CENTRE — PREMIER'S
MEETING
732. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Premier:
I
have a supplementary question. Why was it good enough to establish the
Ministerial Expert Committee on Electoral Reform to suit Labor's
political agenda, but not good enough to address dysfunction and chaos in
communities, families and the youth justice system with an independent inquiry
that would allow everyone to have their say?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
That is a very strange analogy that
the Leader of the Opposition has drawn. She seems to be opposed to the concept
of democracy in Western Australia, whereas we support the concept of democracy.
The idea that people should have equal votes is, I think, a good thing. The
United States created the concept of the gerrymander, whereby some people's votes are worth more than other
people's votes, because some people voted Republican; it might have
even been the Democrats, actually. In the southern states of the US,
they made sure that some people's votes were worth more than others.
That is anathema to democracy, so we have fixed that to make sure that this
state is democratic. This state has democracy.
We are convening a meeting tomorrow
and we will listen to what the various participants have to say. If there are
good ideas, we will listen to them and see what is practical and achievable.