Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly has 25 members, elected from five electorates ― Brindabella, Ginninderra, Kurrajong, Murrumbidgee and Yerrabi ― each having five members.{{cite web|title=A Bill for An Act to amend the Electoral Act 1992|url=http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/b/db_49732/20140605-58003/pdf/db_49732.pdf}}{{cite web|title=Electorates 2016 election|date=27 April 2016|url=http://www.elections.act.gov.au/electoral_boundaries/electorates/electorates_2016_election|access-date=11 May 2016}} Members are elected for four-year terms by the Hare-Clark system, a variation of the Single Transferable Vote form of proportional representation.{{Cite web|url=https://www.parliament.act.gov.au/Explore-your-Assembly/resources/fact-sheets/electing-members|title=Electing Members of the ACT Legislative Assembly|date=25 April 2020 |publisher=Legislative Assembly for the ACT}}

Members of the Legislative Assembly vote to elect a Chief Minister.{{Cite Legislation AU|Cth|num_act|acta1988482|Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988|40}} 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).{{Cite Legislation AU|ACT|act|actaa2014519|Electoral Act 1992|100}} The term of the Assembly was increased in 2004 from three to four years. The last election was held on Saturday the 19th of October, 2024, with the next election expected to be held on 21 October 2028.

{{main|Brindabella electorate}}

Electing five members to the Assembly, Brindabella contains the town centre and all of the suburbs of Tuggeranong. It also includes all of the ACT which is south of the Murrumbidgee River, thus making it the largest electorate by area. It used to exclude the whole of the suburb of Kambah.

{{main|Ginninderra electorate}}

Electing five members to the Assembly, Ginninderra contains the town centre and all of the suburbs of Belconnen excluding Giralang and Kaleen. Its southern boundary was the Molonglo River prior to the 2016 election. It used to exclude the suburbs of Evatt, Lawson and McKellar.

{{main|Kurrajong electorate}}

Electing five members to the Assembly, Kurrajong contains all the suburbs of Inner North Canberra, Inner South Canberra and Oaks Estate. It used to include the suburbs of Deakin, Yarralumla, Forrest and Red Hill.

{{main|Murrumbidgee electorate}}

Electing five members to the Assembly, Murrumbidgee contains all the suburbs of the Molonglo Valley, Weston Creek, Woden Valley and also includes the suburbs of Deakin, Yarralumla, Forrest and Red Hill. It used to also include the whole of the suburb of Kambah.

{{main|Yerrabi electorate}}

Electing five members to the Assembly, Yerrabi contains all the suburbs of Gungahlin as well as the Belconnen suburbs of Giralang and Kaleen and the village of Hall. It used to also include the suburbs of Evatt, Lawson and McKellar.

{{main|Molonglo electorate}}

Molonglo was an electorate of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly that was contested from the 1995 election to the 2012 election, it covered Inner North Canberra, Inner South Canberra, Weston Creek and most of the suburbs of Woden and Gungahlin. It was a 7-seat electorate.

File:ACT Electorates 2020.png

The current Chief Minister is Andrew Barr,{{cite news|url=https://www.parliament.act.gov.au/members/ninth-assembly-members/kurrajong/barr-andrew2|title=Barr-Andrew |date=28 April 2020 }} who is also the Minister for Economic Development and Minister for Tourism and Trade.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date= |title=Andrew Barr MLA |url=https://www.parliament.act.gov.au/members/current/barr |access-date=2025-02-26 |website=ACT Legislative Assembly |language=en-AU}} The position of Chief Minister is analogous to the Premier in the Australian states. Barr is the longest serving Chief Minister in ACT history, as well as the longest serving current Premier or Chief Minister in Australia, having taken the post in December 2014.

The ACT Labor Party has been in power since 2001, although with the exception of 2004-2008, have served in minority or coalition governments with the support of the ACT Greens.{{Cite news |last=Glenday |first=James |date=2024-09-14 |title=Is ACT Labor becoming Canberra's 'forever government'? |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-14/act-election-antony-green-forever-government-analysis/104347268 |access-date=2024-10-24 |work=Australian Broadcasting Corporation}}

At the 2020 Australian Capital Territory election, 10 Labor members, 9 Liberal members and 6 Greens members were elected.

Following the expulsion of Elizabeth Kikkert from the Canberra Liberals party room on 10 September 2024, the Liberals were left with 8 members, with Kikkert becoming an independent.{{Cite web |date=2024-09-10 |title='No tolerance': Kikkert dumped from Liberal party room after being disendorsed |url=https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8758361/canberra-liberals-disendorse-elizabeth-kikkert-ahead-of-act-election/?cs=14329 |access-date=2024-09-22 |website=The Canberra Times |language=en-AU}}

At the 2024 Australian Capital Territory election, 10 Labor members, 9 Liberal members, 4 Green members, 1 Independent for Canberra member, and 1 Fiona Carrick Independent member were elected, with Labor to hold power in a minority government.{{Cite web |date=2024-10-25 |title=Greens MLA Laura Nuttall wins fifth and final seat in Tuggeranong-based electorate of Brindabella|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-25/laura-nuttall-wins-final-seat-in-act-legislative-assembly/104501108 |access-date=2024-10-26 |website=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |language=en-AU}}{{Cite web |date=2024-11-06 |title=ACT Greens say 'business as usual won't cut it' as the party confirms it won't form another coalition with Labor|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-06/act-greens-crossbench-legislative-assembly-no-labor-coalition/104557182 |access-date=2024-11-06 |website=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |language=en-AU}}

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{{As of|2024}}, Members of the Legislative Assembly are paid a base salary of $188,798, while additional remuneration is provided depending on the additional office or role the member holds.{{cite web|url=https://www.remunerationtribunal.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/2452460/Determination-5-of-2024-Members-of-the-ACT-Legislative-Assembly.pdf |title=Determination 5 of 2024 Members of the ACT Legislative Assembly |work=Australian Capital Territory Remuneration Tribunal |accessdate=28 October 2024}}

[[File:ACT legislative assembly electorates.png|thumb|Map of ACT electorates prior to 2016

{{legend|#e28e78|Molonglo}}

{{legend|#808ede|Ginninderra}}

{{legend|#7cf486|Brindabella}}]]

{{further|Australian Capital Territory House of Assembly|Australian Capital Territory Advisory Council}}

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[http://www.elections.act.gov.au/elections/1989/timetable_89.html ACT government elections] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110328084555/http://www.elections.act.gov.au/elections/1989/timetable_89.html |date=28 March 2011 }} and the assembly first sat on 11 May that year.{{Cite web|url=https://www.parliament.act.gov.au/Explore-your-Assembly/resources/fact-sheets/self-government|title=Establishing self-government in the ACT|date=2017-03-20|publisher=Legislative Assembly for the ACT|language=en|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418023423/https://www.parliament.act.gov.au/Explore-your-Assembly/resources/fact-sheets/self-government|archive-date=18 April 2020|access-date=2020-04-10}} 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.

File:ACT Electorates 2016.png

{{further|Members of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly}}

At its inception, the Assembly was elected by a modified d'Hondt system, the ACT comprised one electorate, electing seventeen members to the Assembly. A 1992 referendum supported the Hare-Clark method, which was introduced for the 1995 election. 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".{{cite web|url=http://www.elections.act.gov.au/pdfs/sizeofassemblysubmission.pdf |title=Inquiry into the appropriateness of the size of the ACT Legislative Assembly |work=Submission to the Standing Committee on Legal Affairs |publisher=ACT Electoral Commission |date=2002-04-30 |accessdate=2010-08-21 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090914053235/http://www.elections.act.gov.au/pdfs/sizeofassemblysubmission.pdf |archivedate=September 14, 2009 }}

In 2014, the Assembly voted to expand the number of members to the present 25, with the change taking effect at the 2016 election.{{Cite Legislation AU|ACT|act|actaa2014519|Australian Capital Territory (Legislative Assembly) Act 2014}}

There has only been one majority government in the history of the Legislative Assembly, with Labor winning 9 of 17 seats at the 2004 election.

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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.{{Cite Legislation AU|Cth|num_act|acta1988482|Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988|35}} 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.{{Cite web |last= |title=Territories Self-Government Legislation Amendment (Disallowance and Amendment of Laws) Act 2011 |url=http://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2011A00166/Html/Text |access-date=2023-02-25 |website=www.legislation.gov.au |language=en}}

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{{mdash}}commissioning government, proroguing parliament and enacting legislation{{mdash}}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"{{mdash}}publication in the Government Gazette of a notice authorised by the Chief Minister.{{cite web |url = http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item.asp?dID=118 |title=National Archives: Documenting a Democracy |access-date=8 June 2009 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060221051914/http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item.asp?dID=118 |archive-date=21 February 2006 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }} 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".{{Cite Legislation AU|Cth|num_act|acta1988482|Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988|16}}

{{Portal|Australia}}

• Government of the Australian Capital Territory
• 2020 Australian Capital Territory election
• Human Rights Act 2004
• Members of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly
• Parliaments of the Australian states and territories
• Labor–Greens coalition
• Electoral systems of the Australian states and territories
• Australian Capital Territory ministries

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.parliament.act.gov.au/ Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory]

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{{Members of the Parliament of the Australian Capital Territory}}

{{Government of the Australian Capital Territory |state=autocollapse}}

{{Australian Capital Territory elections |state=autocollapse}}

{{Australian state electoral district}}

{{Parliaments of Australia}}

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{{Australian Capital Territory}}

{{ACT electorates}}

{{Authority control}}

Australian Capital Territory

Category:1988 establishments in Australia