Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly

Last updated

Legislative Assembly
10th Assembly
Coat of Arms of the Australian Capital Territory.svg
ACT Legislative Assembly logo.png
Type
Type
History
Founded11 May 1989;34 years ago (11 May 1989)
Preceded by House of Assembly
Leadership
Joy Burch, Labor
since 31 October 2016
Deputy Speaker
Mark Parton, Liberal
since November 2020
Manager of Government
Business
Mick Gentleman, Labor
since February 2016
Government whip
Andrew Barr, Labor
since 11 December 2014
Elizabeth Lee, Liberal
since 27 October 2020
Structure
Seats25
2021.03.25 ACT Legislative Assembly - Composition of Members.svg
Political groups
 Government (16)
  Labor (10)
  Greens (6) [1]
Opposition (9)
  Liberal (9)
Length of term
4 years
Elections
Hare–Clark electoral system
First election
 4 March 1989
Last election
 17 October 2020
Next election
 19 October 2024
Meeting place
Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly.jpg
Legislative Assembly Building, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Website
www.parliament.act.gov.au
Chamber of the ACT Legislative Assembly Legislative Assembly ACT Chamber.jpg
Chamber of the ACT Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory (known in short as the ACT Legislative Assembly) is the unicameral legislature of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It sits in the Legislative Assembly Building on Civic Square, close to the centre of the city of Canberra.

Contents

Unlike the legislatures of the other mainland states and territories, the Assembly also has the functions of a local council; the city of Canberra has no other local government. It replaced the House of Assembly when the ACT was granted self-government in 1986.

Structure and Membership

The Legislative Assembly has 25 members, elected from five electorates ― Brindabella, Ginninderra, Kurrajong, Murrumbidgee and Yerrabi ― each having five members. [2] [3] Members are elected for four-year terms by the Hare-Clark system, a variation of the Single Transferable Vote form of proportional representation. [4]

Members of the Legislative Assembly vote to elect a Chief Minister [5] . In practice, Chief Minister is the leader of whichever party is able to form government. The Chief Minister, in turn, selects ministers to form a cabinet. The leader of the second-largest party in the Assembly usually becomes the Leader of the Opposition.

Election dates for the Assembly are fixed in legislation, with elections held on the third Saturday in October every four years (until 1997, elections were held in February). [6] The term of the Assembly was increased in 2004 from three to four years. The next election is due on Saturday the 19th of October, 2024.

Current Government

Electorates used for the 2020 election. ACT Electorates 2020.png
Electorates used for the 2020 election.

The current Chief Minister is Andrew Barr, [7] who is also the Treasurer, Minister for Climate Action, Minister for Economic Development and Minister for Tourism. The position of Chief Minister is analogous to the Premier in the Australian states.

As of the 2020 Australian Capital Territory general election, the Legislative Assembly is made up of 10 Labor seats, 9 Liberal seats and 6 Greens seats.

PartySeats heldPercentageSeat distribution
Labor Party 1040%          
Liberal Party 936%          
ACT Greens 624%          
ElectorateSeats held
Brindabella      
Ginninderra      
Kurrajong      
Murrumbidgee      
Yerrabi      
 Labor
 Liberal
 Green

The ACT Greens has formed coalition governments with the ACT Labor Party since 2012, after supporting a minority Labor government in 2008. This is the only Labor–Greens coalition state or territory government in Australia. It is arguably the first such coalition, with a 1989 agreement in Tasmania not granting the Tasmanian Greens any cabinet positions.

Salary

As of 2018 Members of the Legislative Assembly were paid a base salary of $164,382. Most members were entitled to an additional loading, up to a maximum of $345,202 for the chief minister. [8]

History

The current Legislative Assembly was created by four acts of the Commonwealth Parliament in 1988, including the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988. The first election was held on 4 March 1989 [9] and the assembly first sat on 11 May that year. [10] Until this point, the ACT had been directly administered by the Commonwealth Government. It replaced the House of Assembly (also known for a period as the Legislative Assembly), which existed from 1976 to 1986, but had no executive power, with a principal function of advising the Commonwealth on matters relating to the Territory. [10]

Historical Composition

At its inception, the Assembly was elected by a modified d'Hondt system, but a 1992 referendum supported the Hare-Clark method, which was introduced for the 1995 election. [4] As of this change, the Legislative Assembly had 17 members, elected from three electorates. Brindabella and Ginninderra elected five members, and the now-defunct electorate of Molonglo elected seven.

On 30 April 2002, the ACT Electoral Commission made a submission to the ACT Legislative Assembly's Standing Committee on Legal Affairs, which inquired into the appropriateness of the size of the Legislative Assembly for the ACT, and options for changing the number of members and electorates. The Electoral Commission recommended increasing "the size of the Legislative Assembly to three electorates each returning seven members, giving a total of 21 members". [11]

In 2014, the Assembly voted to expand the number of members to the present 25, with the change taking effect at the 2016 election. [12]

Powers

As with the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, the ACT Legislative Assembly lacks the full powers of a state legislature. Section 122 of the Constitution of Australia provides that the Commonwealth Parliament "may make laws for the government of any territory" surrendered by any State to the Commonwealth. The Governor-General, on the advice of the Executive, previously had the power to override laws passed by the Assembly. [13] Although this was rare in practice, the Civil Unions Act 2006, which allowed same-sex couples to enter into "civil unions" was overruled following concerns that the civil unions mimicked marriage. In July 2006, the Federal Government again threatened to overrule the ACT Stanhope Government's anti-terror legislation, which was not consistent with other state laws. In 2011 the Federal Parliament passed a private senator's bill which removed this power in respect to both the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. [14]

The ACT is unique among Australian states and self-governing territories, as it has no vice-regal post exercising authority as the representative of the monarch, such as a governor or an Administrator. The functions vested in a state Governor or territorial Administrator as nominal head of the Executive—commissioning government, proroguing parliament and enacting legislation—are exercised by the Assembly itself and by the Chief Minister. Instead of vice-regal or regal assent, a Bill passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly is enacted on "notification"—publication in the Government Gazette of a notice authorised by the Chief Minister. [15] However, the Governor-General of Australia does have the power to dissolve the Assembly if it is "incapable of effectively performing its functions or is conducting its affairs in a grossly improper manner". [16]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ https://www.cmtedd.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/1654077/Parliamentary-Agreement-for-the-10th-Legislative-Assembly.pdf While the Greens sit in the cabinet of the ACT Government, three Greens MLAs sit on the backbench, allowing them to put forward private members' bills and question ministers. All 6 Greens MLAs are party to the Parliamentary (Coalition) agreement. This agreement sets out “two-party government” principles & binds Greens MLAs
  2. ↑ "A Bill for An Act to amend the Electoral Act 1992" (PDF).
  3. ↑ "Electorates 2016 election". 27 April 2016. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Electing Members of the ACT Legislative Assembly". Legislative Assembly for the ACT. 25 April 2020.
  5. ↑ Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 (Cth) s 40
  6. ↑ Electoral Act 1992 (ACT) s 100
  7. ↑ "Barr-Andrew". 28 April 2020.
  8. ↑ Foden, Blake (4 April 2018). "ACT politicians awarded 2.5 per cent pay rise". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  9. ↑ ACT government elections Archived 28 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  10. 1 2 "Establishing self-government in the ACT". Legislative Assembly for the ACT. 20 March 2017. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  11. ↑ "Inquiry into the appropriateness of the size of the ACT Legislative Assembly" (PDF). Submission to the Standing Committee on Legal Affairs. ACT Electoral Commission. 30 April 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 September 2009. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
  12. ↑ Australian Capital Territory (Legislative Assembly) Act 2014 (ACT)
  13. ↑ Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 (Cth) s 35
  14. ↑ "Territories Self-Government Legislation Amendment (Disallowance and Amendment of Laws) Act 2011". www.legislation.gov.au. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  15. ↑ "National Archives: Documenting a Democracy". Archived from the original on 21 February 2006. Retrieved 8 June 2009.
  16. ↑ Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 (Cth) s 16
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