Labor would increase the size of the ACT Legislative Assembly from 17 to 25 if it attains majority government at the October election, Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said yesterday.
He also wants to increase the ministry to six or seven from the present five.
The Assembly has had 17 Members since its inception in 1989. It that time the ACT’s population has grown from 270,000 to 320,000.
“Increasing the size of the Assembly is about delivering good government,” Mr Stanhope said. “I am firmly committed to it. It is an issue I will pursue.
“There is a popular wisdom around that it is not good for a politician or anyone else to support the employment of more politicians,” he said. “But I am a strong advocate for an increased size of the Assembly. I think this is a very big issue for this territory.
“Seventeen Members and five ministers do not deliver to the people of Canberra the level of government and the level of attention to issues that they deserve,” he said. “Much of the shortcoming of government is a result of the sheer volume of work and breadth of the issues that each minister has to cover.”
He would seek an Assembly of five five-member electorates. He rejects an increase to only 21 with three seven-member electorates. That would only help the cross-bench. The Government (of whatever party) would probably get only one extra seat. Twenty-fives seats, however, would most likely give the Government and the Opposition two extra seats each. This would give the Government the capacity to appoint another one or two ministers and give better capacity to do committee work.
The extra cost of $2 million a year made the idea unpopular but “a serious analysis would show it to be cost effective”
Earlier attempts to increase the size of the Assembly failed because neither Labor nor the Liberals could get enough support from the Greens, Democrats or independents for their proposals.
Stanhope said it was important for the people of Canberra to have better representation at ministerial council meetings. Often an ACT Minister would be covering 12 equivalent portfolios of other jurisdictions and it was impossible to keep up with the detail.
“I am prepared to talk the Assembly up,” Stanhope said. “This is a good parliament. The people of Canberra are well served by this parliament. The gestation was crook; nobody wanted it. The first few years were shambolic and it developed a poor reputation. But people here [in the Assembly] have been far too defensive about their role in Canberra and this has dragged this place down as an institution.”