Page 1800 - Week 06 - Thursday, 9 May 2013
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I seek leave to make a statement in relation to the paper.
Leave granted.
MS GALLAGHER: I am pleased to table the report by the Expert Reference Group on the review into the size of the ACT Legislative Assembly. I would like to thank the Expert Reference Group, chaired by the Electoral Commissioner, Phillip Green, for completing such an extensive research and consultation process in what was a short time frame.
The report I am tabling today was released publicly on 16 April 2013. It provides a blueprint for how we can expand the ACT Legislative Assembly and the executive for the demands of the future. It also provides the evidence to show that if, as an Assembly, we do not take this opportunity, if we do not use the power the commonwealth has given us to determine our own size, we will create significant risks to good governance in the ACT.
On 13 December 2012 I established an expert reference group to consider and report on the adequacy of the size of the current Assembly and to provide options for increasing it. The terms of reference for the review asked the Expert Reference Group to: examine past reviews into the size of the Assembly; consider factors relevant to increasing the size of the Assembly; consider any limitation placed on changes to the size of the Assembly by the Proportional Representation (Hare-Clark) Entrenchment Act 1994; and recommend options for increasing the size of the Assembly, including the number of electorates and the number of members for each electorate.
It is a subject that has drawn debate since before self-government, with 11 previous inquiries touching on the issue. But this is the first inquiry that has happened since the Legislative Assembly has had the power to determine its own size. This power was provided in March 2013 when the federal parliament amended the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 to give the Assembly the power to set its own size by enactment passed by at least a two-thirds majority of members.
The review I am tabling today found compelling evidence to support growing the size of the Assembly. The most obvious need is for us to address the under-representation of ACT voters. Due to population growth, the ratio of MLAs to ACT voters has gone from one per 10,000 in 1989 to one per 15,130 today. When you factor in the absence of local government in the ACT and our small representation in federal parliament, the level of political representation becomes much less than anywhere else in Australia.
Proportionally, across all levels of government, there are 5.6 elected representatives per 100,000 voters in the ACT, less than one-quarter of the national average. If we do not act this term to increase the size of the Assembly, we will effectively lock in the status quo until at least 2020, when the ACT population is expected to exceed 400,000 people.
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