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Upper House Concerns To Be Addressed At MeetingThe Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council and Liberal Member for Gippsland Province, Philip Davis will speak at a public meeting in Heyfield tomorrow night, outlining the impact of the Bracks Government’s Upper House changes. By Philip Davis - 29th July 2005 - Back to News Mr Davis congratulated Heyfield’s Moss Mahony for organizing the meeting, saying it was important the community of Gippsland which is soon to be incorporated in the Legislative Council’s Eastern Victorian Region knew how the changes to Parliament would work before the next election.
"While this meeting is a good initiative, unfortunately it is too late to stop the changes which were rammed through both Houses of Parliament more than two years ago," Mr Davis said.
"It is a pity that little public interest was shown in Upper House changes 21/2 years ago when the Liberal party was attempting to raise public awareness about the implications for country Victoria as the Bracks Government was forcing amendments to the Constitution Act and Electoral Act through the Parliament.
"While it is important that some in the local community and some local media are now taking an interest in the boundaries and it is too late to change the fact that the Victorian Parliament has been changed forever.
"But what we must do is ensure that the electorate is informed about what those changes mean."
Mr Davis said he remained adamantly opposed to the Upper House changes imposed by the Bracks Government.
"The Liberal Party vigorously opposed these reforms in the Parliament," he said.
"The Bracks Government attempted to force these changes three times in the past five years.
"Prior to 2002 the Liberal party had a majority in the Legislative Council and voted the Bracks Government changes down on two occasions. But as soon as Labor won control of the Upper House following the 2002 election it used its numbers to ram the changes through.
"It is also evident that this change will be extremely difficult if not possible to modify – a Bill would have to be passed through both Houses and agreed at a referendum of all voters.
"The Liberal Party fought against the changes every step of the way because we knew it would disenfranchise country Victoria and unfortunately that has come about.
"There will be less representation in country areas in the Victorian Parliament in the future – there will be less advocating for action on wild dogs, weed management, right to farm issues, pensioner motor vehicle concessions and natural disaster assistance.
"There will be little community interface with Upper House members as part of the electoral representative structure as the changes will require Upper House members to attempt to represent more than 440,000 constituents.
"In the case of Eastern Victoria, it is proposed this will be from Port Phillip Bay and Point Nepean and the Yarra Valley to Mallacoota.
"I urge everyone to now take an interest in the electoral process which will be changed by these reforms even if is too late to stop it or reverse it."
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: news@gippsland.com
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