Alex White (Labour)

I will take two minutes. I do not wish any discourtesy to my colleagues but I have not been able to follow this debate because I was at a meeting of the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children. I am unable to respond to anything else that was said in the debate.

I wish to respond to something Senator Norris has repeatedly said in his robust defence of the university representation under the Constitution. Some of his contribution was teasing but he set up the question of university representatives against the local authority elected representatives, of which I am one. The 43 Members elected by local authority members are elected by way of an indirect system of election. It is not unknown in many countries to have indirect elections, even for the presidencies of some countries. It may not be perfect and it may be an issue for public debate or a constitutional amendment in due course but at least it is universal. The relationship between an ordinary citizen and a Member of this House is indirect but it is the same. Once one has the franchise at 18 years of age, one can vote for local authority members and they, in turn, can vote for a Member of this House. Although it is indirect and imperfect, it is universal.

University representation is the opposite of universal. People do not like the term elitist but I have used it now even though I did not intend to use it in a pejorative sense. University representation is limited to a certain body of persons in a position to vote for candidates. I am a graduate, one of the privileged, lucky people who can vote for representatives of universities in this House. The question of university representation must be revisited and justified anew in this century. The justification that existed in the 1930s no longer exists. Members such as Senators Norris and O'Toole and many who have gone before them make a valuable contribution to public life but I do not see why we need to maintain the fiction of their being elected to this House through universities.