The Clerk of the ACT Legislative Assembly has urged Canberra's local politicians be banned from meeting with unregistered lobbyists, after four years of government inaction on the proposal when it was made in 2014.
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The proposal was one of many before a committee inquiry reviewing the Assembly's Standing Orders, ranging from measures that could both further stifle, or widen debate, as well as improve the way the Assembly operates.
In a submission to the inquiry, the Clerk, Tom Duncan, wrote he sought advice from the Assembly's Ethics and Integrity Advisor Stephen Skehill about the Assembly's existing lobbyist regulations.
Mr Skehill told the Office of the Legislative Assembly the current guidelines still did not prohibit contact between territory politicians, their staff or public servants from meeting unregistered lobbyists, and Mr Duncan wrote that such a prohibition should be included.
While the proposal was also made during a committee inquiry in 2014 that led to the creation of the ACT's lobbyist register, neither then-chief minister Katy Gallagher, nor her successor Andrew Barr, have acted on it.
It remains relevant as some key players in Canberra's development scene have publicly claimed they did not need to be registered to act on behalf of clients seeking development approvals, such as Elton Consulting's Dan Stewart.
Mr Stewart, a former ACT public servant turned consultant, had met with Mr Barr and Planning Minister Mick Gentleman about a number of developments he was acting on behalf of, including the casino redevelopment, but Greens leader Shane Rattenbury had refused such meetings, telling him he needed to register.
In other submissions to the current inquiry, the ACT government proposed halving the amount of time its ministers can spend answering questions without notice, down from one minute to two minutes, in measures it says would help streamline Question Time.
The government has also proposed placing tighter restrictions on the nature of supplementary questions to be directly relevant to the prior question and introduce no new information, as well as limit the amount of time for supplementary to be asked to 30 seconds, a key mechanism for Assembly scrutiny of the territory government.
Similarly, the ACT Labor caucus has proposed similar, or the same, ideas as government to limit debate, allow a new 30 minute section of Assembly business for politicians to make a three minute statement on any issue - which appears to double up on existing daily adjournment debates for the same purpose.
The Labor caucus also proposed that the Assembly lunch break be brought forward from 12.30pm to 2.30pm to noon to 2pm, that a "complete overhaul" of the Assembly's broadcasting guidelines be completed, that gender-neutral terms be used on the floor and the Estimates committee be abolished and its biannual hearings be undertaken by the existing Standing Committees.
The ACT Greens have also made a series of proposals to the committee that could see Canberrans allowed to contribute more directly to local political debate, including by either posing their own questions without notice to ministers.
The minor party also proposed allowing residents to propose matters of public importance on any relevant issue, a daily mechanism often used by backbenchers to start a public debate, and rejecting a proposal that may force the Clerk to destroy all previous MLAs declarations of interests, which could make it hard for the proposed integrity commission to do its work.
The inquiry report is expected to be completed later this month.
