Chief Minister Katy Gallagher fears proposals to increase the number of politicians in the ACT's Parliament may be dead in the water.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ms Gallagher warned on Thursday that unless the ACT Assembly was enlarged from its current 17 members, some ministerial responsibilities may eventually have to be devolved to unelected officials.
She made the comments after Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson called for a poll to be commissioned on whether the public wanted more local politicians.
An expert reference group has recommended that the Assembly be progressively enlarged from its current 17 members to up to 35 MLAs.
But any change in the size of the Assembly would require a two-thirds majority of members, effectively giving the opposition a power of veto.
Ms Gallagher said she now thought it unlikely the issue would be dealt with during this term of the Assembly. ''We can't do this on our own, we needed bipartisan support, doesn't sound like we're going to get it,'' she said
''So, it will require me now to think of what other options we have to make sure that governance remains strong in the territory.''
Ms Gallagher said she had sought advice from the expert panel on how to ensure good governance if the Assembly remained the same size as the population continued to grow.
The panel had recommended a ''risk audit'' to determine what ministerial arrangements should be put in place when population and budget hit certain sizes.
''They certainly recommended looking at that and that means that you devolve responsibilities from the executive to non-elected members of the community essentially - that's the way you manage it,'' Ms Gallagher said.
The ACT executive consists of five ministers and Ms Gallagher is expected to appoint a sixth minister during this term of government. The expert reference group had recommended that the ACT have between seven and nine members.
Mr Hanson had told the Assembly the Liberal Party was yet to decide on whether the Assembly should be enlarged but there had been inadequate public consultation.
Mr Hanson said Ms Gallagher should commission a public opinion poll on enlarging the Assembly in the way it had commissioned research on what Canberrans thought about centenary celebrations.
''I'm surprised then that the government hasn't thought to do a survey of what the people of Canberra think about doubling the number of their politicians,'' Mr Hanson said.
''If we're going to talk about whether people are concerned about queuing for a hot dog and she thinks that that is something worthy of conducting a survey on, why haven't we conducted a survey of the people of Canberra to say, 'do you want to double the number of your politicians?'''
Mr Hanson said submissions made to the expert panel were not necessarily representative of broader public opinion.
He said comparisons between the size of the Assembly and other Australian parliaments and councils were not necessarily valid because the small size of the ACT meant MLAs could remain close to their local communities while fulfilling parliamentary duties.