Point of order! the legislative assembly of the Northern Territory 1974-1994

Abstract

In 1992 I was pleased to conumss10n Dr Dean Jaensch and Deborah Wade­ Marshall to compile a history of the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory to celebrate its first 20 years and for the work to be published on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Legislative Assembly in November 1994. This period, 1974-1994, marks a time of important development of the Northern Territory as a body politic. The story unfolded in this volume is essentially one of progress which spans the inception of representative democracy achieved with the first fully-elected Assembly in 1974, the measure of responsible government gained at the time of self-government in 1978 to the commencement of the Seventh Assembly and the completion of the new Parliament House building. This important period of constitutional development has laid the foundation for the future Statehood for the Northern Territory. I believe that there would be no-one better qualified to write a history of the Northern Territory Parliament than Dr Jaensch. He has a long history as a commentator on Territory politics and electoral issues and is a distinguished researcher, editor and author on politics and political history. Dr Jaensch's work is complemented by Deborah Wade-Marshall's contribution. Deborah is a long-term Territorian with a sound background in research and she carried out her research and co-writing work on this book from the Parliamentary Library. The main purpose of this project is to attract the interest of Territorians in the work and role of the Legislative Assembly in its first 20 years. The finished work is a narrative and analytical study which will inform the present and future voters about how the Northern Territory Parliament operates and its central place in the constitutional development of the Northern Territory. This work is not only a comprehensive compendium of the history of the Assembly, its Members and the precincts, but an accurate assessment of the role the Assembly has in the context of the Territory and the Australian political environment. It also contains a wealth of statistical and biographical detail and will be a valuable research tool for students. As a measure of the development of the Legislative Assembly since 1974, my personal recollection is of the primitive accommodation and limited support facilities which Members tolerated in the early days when even basic photocopying facilities were unknown and all back bench Members shared a single office with two telephones. Those privations are now remedied by the completion of the new Parliament House building which will serve parliamentary democracy in the Territory 'for the next 100 years. No doubt, Members, their staff and constituents will take extreme pride in the development of the Parliament during these 20 years. When reflecting on the past 20 years of the operation of the Assembly, we must not forget the efforts of the former Members of both the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly and the important roles they played in the political and constitutional development of the Territory. This work provides a natural completion to the Short History of the Legislative Council which was written by Fred Walker, Clerk of the Legislative Assembly from 1974 to 1977. The written history of Parliament in the Northern Territory now spans the 'shirt sleeves Parliament' held in a war-time shed to the newest Parliamentary building in the Commonwealth and chronicles a developing Territory rapidly taking its rightful place among the States. As my term as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly is drawing to a close, I am able to reflect happily on my involvement with the Assembly during the past 20 years and, in particular, during my time as Speaker, I shall fondly remember my association with Dean Jaensch and Deborah Wade-Marshall during the period they worked on this book. Show more