Three Liberals including deputy leader Nicole Lawder will miss the first and only sitting of the new ACT parliament for the year, absent at a conference in London.
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Labor turned down the chance to send one of its politicians to the annual conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association because of the sitting week. As a result, the Liberals took up the third spot, as well as their own two.
Vicki Dunne attends the seven-day conference as acting treasurer of the association. Andrew Wall is the ACT's branch delegate, a job that goes turn-about between Labor and Liberal each year. And Ms Lawder took the third spot, and will attend the fourth triennial female parliamentarians' conference.
The date of the conference in London was set some months ago, after the planned annual conference in Bangladesh was postponed for security concerns.
But the government scheduled the only sitting week for this week, having its own timetabling headaches, including Chief Minister Andrew Barr's post-election holiday to New York.
Labor says it turned down the third spot because of the sitting week. The Liberals say Labor had no choice because the conference place was for a non-executive female, and Labor had none who weren't making inaugural speeches.
The conference cuts across the first proper sitting week of the ninth Assembly since the swearing in of October 31, an event that marks a number of milestones. The ACT parliament has expanded from 17 to 25 members, necessitating a redesign of the building, and of the chamber - which for the first time sports a central desk across which the Chief Minister will face the Opposition leader directly.
Eleven politicians will give their inaugural speeches, beginning on Tuesday with those elected from the southern seats and finishing on Thursday.
Among major issues on the agenda this week is the splitting of the Land Development Agency into two organisations - one responsible for developing new suburbs; the other for "urban renewal" projects such as the development of West Basin and Northbourne Avenue. Each will have a separate board. The new agencies are not due to begin until July next year, but the government plans to have legislation passed in February and has seconded Andrew Kefford to work on the restructure. Mr Barr is expected to outline the new structure on Thursday this week.
The split follows a damning audit report in September into the Land Development Agency's handling of the purchase of land in Glebe Park and in West Basin.
No sooner are the inaugural speeches finished on Thursday, the politicians will make their end-of-year goodbye speeches ahead of the Christmas break. Last year, Ms Lawder penned a poem for the occasion, titled The Tram from Gungahlin Station and modelled on The Man From Snowy River. She won't be here to do the same this year.
Clerk Tom Duncan is also in London as Australia's secretary of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.
The conference website says workshops will be held on topics including the role of the Commonwealth in fostering freedom of religion or belief, ending violence against women and girls, sustainable development, climate change, and radicalisation of young people.
The association pays a business class and an economy class airfare for the event; the rest is paid by the ACT Assembly.
