This jurisdiction isn't large enough, economically diverse enough, or wealthy enough, to do all the things expected of a state government.

While the ACT government has tried to fill the gap by selling land and increasing rates and charges, there is a limit to what can be done.

The supply of saleable land is definitely finite. Many residents have said they are already at the upper limit of what they can afford to pay for rates, land taxes and other charges.

The pressures become crystal clear when, in addition to delivering local services, the ACT government is also tasked with looking after a separate Commonwealth territory on the south coast at Jervis Bay.

A damning report on the provision of services to Jervis Bay Territory residents, handed to the Barr government last May and obtained by The Canberra Times under Freedom of Information, indicates if the 2018 push to make our Legislative Assembly responsible for Norfolk Island had succeeded it would have ended badly for all concerned.

The Norfolk Island proposal, floated by then Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, last July has since been shelved. It was shortsighted and opportunistic and would have been unfair to Canberrans and Norfolk Island residents alike.

With the ACT government already fighting an uphill battle to meet the needs of its local population, it just isn't in a position to take on additional responsibilities.

The JBT report found residents of the JBT, created in 1915 to give Canberra its own seaport, were losing out when it came to the courts, education and welfare.

There has even been an instance when a body, transferred from Jervis Bay to the morgue in Canberra, was temporarily stranded when the family weren't able to arrange its return for burial.

"It would have been far more efficient and a far better experience for the family if the Shoalhaven Morgue had been used," the report found.

While relatively small at just 67.8km and with a population of fewer than 400 people, the JBT presents significant administrative challenges.

It is home to a significant indigenous community at Wreck Bay and is closer to Sydney than it is to Canberra.

The tenuous argument that the ACT needs its own seaport, independent of NSW, makes even less sense now than it did 103 years ago at the peak of interstate rivalry over who would control the national capital.

What could, under other circumstances, be acceptable as a quaint anachronism becomes an inexcusable absurdity when it starts impacting on the life, health and even liberty of individuals who can find themselves trapped in a bureaucratic nightmare of Kafkaesque dimensions.

Earnest and immediate consideration should be given to reviewing whether the state of which it is so obviously a part, or the ACT Government from 200 km away, should be responsible for the provision of all local services.

If that role was handed back to NSW it would free Canberra's politicians and public servants up to concentrate on the many challenges in their own backyard.