The ACT government won't seek to follow the Northern Territory as it prepares to become Australia's seventh state by 2018.
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On Thursday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott met with premiers and chief ministers at the Council of Australian Governments, agreeing the Northern Territory should achieve statehood by July 1, 2018.
After the meeting Chief Minister Andrew Barr hosed down any prospect of an ACT change, pointing to the Australian constitution, which requires the national capital be inside a federal territory.
"It is not possible for the ACT to be a state due to the creation of the territory as enshrined in the constitution," he said.
The ACT Solicitor-General has advised the government statehood was "conventionally regarded as unavailable for the ACT because of Section 125 of the constitution."
The section states "the seat of government will be of a territory that is vested in and belongs to the Commonwealth government."
It also requires the territory of the seat of government to be a minimum size of "100 square miles", meaning the ACT could not be subdivided in order to separate the seat of government from the rest of the territory.
A spokesman said Mr Barr would not be lobbying the federal government or other state and territory leaders for any change.
But Professor George Williams, one of Australia's leading constitutional experts, said there was no clear answer on whether the ACT could become a state if it wished to.
"There is no clear answer and it's often been suggested off-the-cuff the ACT couldn't become a state because of the constitution, but it's not clear," he said.
"If the ACT became a state you would have to remove the parliamentary precinct from it and then you would have to ask what the point is?"
But beyond the constitutional arguments, MrWilliams said it was unlikely ACT politicians would push for statehood in coming years.
"It would be less likely than in the Northern Territory where there has been a strong push for a long time and a higher degree of anger about federal overreach," he said.
Speaking on Thursday, Mr Giles said the Northern Territory was a "second-class citizen" that had a "second-tier status in the nation".
Mr Williams, of the University of NSW, said the ACT should watch carefully to see whether the Northern Territory's federal representation would increase from 2018.
"It is quite likely they will have an increase to three of four senators and it would seem odd that they get that and the ACT has fewer senators but a higher population," he said.
Mr Barr agreed the ACT was under-represented at the federal and territory level.
"This will improve with the expansion of the ACT Legislative Assembly in 2016, but having 12 senators in federal parliament is a bit of a stretch and won't happen," he said.
