ACT politicians may be forced to give up their lounge and party meeting rooms if the Legislative Assembly is increased from 17 to 25 members at the next election.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ministers would probably be moved out of the Assembly's home in the South Building to new execu-tive offices if the change goes ahead.
An expert working group recommended earlier this year that the size of the Assembly be progressively increased to 35 members.
In an Assembly estimates committee hearing on Friday, Assembly clerk Tom Duncan was asked if 25 members could be accommodated in the building after the 2016 election.
Mr Duncan said it would probably be necessary to follow the example of other states where ministers' main offices were not located inside the parliamentary building.
Smaller offices could be provided for ministers in the Assembly building to work in during sitting days.
"I would envisage that we would convert those offices on the second floor from a minister's suite to two members' offices,'' Mr Duncan said.
"We'd probably need to lose the party rooms, we might need the media conference room, we might lose the member's lounge. And if we lost all that accommodation, parties might have to meet in the committee rooms.''
Mr Duncan added: "The other option of course is to get a new building.''
The Legislative Assembly chamber is already large enough to comfortably seat 25 members.
Any attempt to enlarge the Assembly would require the support of at least two-thirds of members.
The Liberal opposition has expressed strong reservations about the creation of extra Assembly seats.
Meanwhile, Labor MLAs used Friday's estimates hearing to pressure Canberra Liberals MLA Vicki Dunne over her role as Assembly Speaker.
Mrs Dunne has had some controversy since taking on the Speaker's position after last year's territory election.
In February, the ACT government and Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury used their numbers to pass a motion banning religious services associated with the Legislative Assembly after Mrs Dunne hosted a church service to mark the start of the Assembly year.
On Friday, Mrs Dunne was challenged over how successfully she had separated her role as an impartial Speaker from her role as a Canberra Liberals MLA.
Mrs Dunne, who dropped her opposition portfolios when she took on the Speaker's role, said she attended party room meetings about policy but avoided meetings that discussed questions to be asked in question time or tactics.
"I don't have any involvement in discussions about tactics and I don't have any involvement in discussions about questions," she said.
