by Rob Pritchard — last modified 2009-05-02 12:32 PM

President Peter welcomed Guest Speaker Barry O’Farrell, partners Margaret Warden and Jan Pasfield, Visiting Rotarian Jay Thorogood and Exchange Student Andrea Salzmann.

Andrea, wearing a Tshirt carrying the message “Good Girls go to Heaven, Bad Girls go Down Under”,told us that she had got up very early to go in to the Anzac Day Dawn Service, and had subsequently watched the parade. She goes back to school tomorrow.

PDG Pam Pritchard told us that there had been a very fruitful meeting of the Bo Committee on Sunday, including representatives of International House, the Rotary Club of Kuringgai and Mark Thompson from Katoomba. Arrangements are in hand to get the process of appointing a Project Manager in Bo and to call for tenders

Barrie Heath as Acting Secretary told us that MaryAnne Haines, Ian Howden, Steve Morton and Colin Sweet are all on extended leave of absence. He also informed of the success of the Club’s Anzac Day activities at Turramrra Station and Turramurra Park. Particular thanks are due to Milton Mason and Julie Palmer. Barrie was also grateful for the assistance of all those who helped, including Jay Thorogood. The cups of tea and coffee and Anzac biscuits were all free, but somehow the Club made $260 on the day.

Bob Burnett pointed out the need for tools and equipment of all sorts to replace those lost in the Victorian bushfires. Donations can be brought to Club meetings Bob and  Dennis De Kantzow will take them to the central collection depot.

Sergeant Guy Kingdon fined various people for various offences including Brian Plain for obscuring the Sergeant’s badge. Heads and Tails was won by Bob Burnett.

Guest Speaker

Ian Salmon introduced Barry O’Farrell, local member of the New South Wales Parliament and Leader of the Opposition. Barry was elected to the seat of Northcott in 1995, and subsequently to the seat of Ku-ring-gai in 1999. He was elected Leader of the Opposition in 2007.

Barry talked about the history of politics in New South Wales. The first Legislative Council was established as a result of an act passed by the British Parliament in 1823. It was a tiny body, entirely appointed by the Governor. Parliament House in Sydney dates back to 1829. In 1843 some elected members were added to the Legislative Council, but they were required to have wealth, so this essentially a very unrepresentative body. Substantial pressures were rising for self-government, but while it was agreed that it should follow the British tradition, there was much argument about which part of that tradition should be followed. William Charles Wenworth, who in his youth had been a radical leader of the emancipists was now strongly conservative. The key issue was land, which the democrats wished to take away from the squatters and break up into farms for settlers. Wentworth argued for a hereditary upper house dominated by the squatters to prevent this from happening. The radicals led by Henry Parkes and Daniel Deniehy ridiculed the idea of a bunyip aristocracy.

Eventually the model decided on was for an elected Legislative Assembly, heavily weighted towards the squatters however, and an appointed Legislative Council. The first election was held in 1856. The first Premier, selected by the Governor was Stuart Alexander Donaldson. The first contest in the new Parliament was over the election of the Speaker. It was won by Daniel Hooper. Donaldson participated in the last duel in New South Wales with Major Thomas Mitchell, whom he had insulted. Before the emergence of the party system in the 1890s there was a lot of skulduggery in Parliament.

Women got the vote in New South Wales in 1904, after New Zealand and the Australian Federal Parliament. The first woman MP, Millicent Stanley, was elected in 1925. Up until 1988 only seven women in total had been elected. Currently 30% of members are women. The longest continuous speech given in the Parliament lasted for 3 hours 58 minutes. In the earlier days, Parliament sat for 230 to 240 days a year. This has been gradually reduced to the point where Parliament will probably only sit for 60 days this year. This has important consequences in terms of the ability of members to serve the interests of their electorates. Because the Government doesn’t control the Upper House, it potentially has the ability to serve as a genuine houseof review, but in practice this does not happen. Barry then asked for names of members of the Upper House. Turramurra Rotary exhausted his stock of Freddo frogs. Reflecting on the roles of the three levels of government in Australia, Barry thought that the biggest problem in New South Wales was the centralisation of all power in Macquarie Street, but he question whether centralisation of power in Canberra would in any way be an improvement.

Grahame Marr thanked Barry for a very interesting review of the history of government in New South Wales, with some very interesting haractewrs along the way.

The raffle was won by Sue Rice, and Trevor Lwes and Brian Plain won the scratchies.

Scribe – Rob Pritchard

The fines session raised $79, and 30 members were in attendance.