Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Legislative Assembly
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
Legislative Assembly Building, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Website
www.parliament.act.gov.au
Chamber of the ACT Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory (known in short as the ACT Legislative Assembly) is the

the centre of the city of Canberra
.

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

See also: Electorates of the Australian Capital Territory

The Legislative Assembly has 25 members, elected from five electorates ―

Single Transferable Vote form of proportional representation.[4]

Members of the Legislative Assembly vote to elect 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

See also: Labor–Greens coalition
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.

Party Seats held Percentage Seat distribution
Labor Party
 10 40%                    
Liberal Party
 9 36%                    
ACT Greens 6 24%                    
Electorate Seats 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. As of January 2024, this is the only Labor–Greens coalition
state or territory government in Australia.

Salary

As of 2018[update] 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

Further information: Australian Capital Territory House of Assembly and Australian Capital Territory Advisory Council

The current Legislative Assembly was created by four acts of 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

Further information: Members of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly

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

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

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. ^ a b "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. ^ a b "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

External links

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