Andrew Barr said the establishment of local councils would be costly and argued the ACT's two levels of government represented the "best practice" in the nation.

It followed comments from former chief minister Jon Stanhope, who said it was time for the ACT to consider local councils. Mr Stanhope argued it would be "healthy" for a city which has been ruled by the same party for almost 20 years.

But Mr Barr said now is not the time for local councils to be considered.

"Perhaps at some point in the future the ACT population may have grown big enough to warrant a further level of government," he said.

"It could be something worth considering if the territory's population reaches, say, 1 to 1.5 million, where greater political representation and localised decision making could be useful.

"It is more likely though that a further increase in the size of the Legislative Assembly would be the appropriate response when the population reaches 1 million."

The ACT's current population is about 431,000.

Mr Barr said it would also be expensive, particularly the additional salaries.

"There would be many inefficiencies in service delivery if local government services were devolved to what would be micro-councils," he said.

"Furthermore, there would be a significant cost implication to implementing a council system for the ACT - including the salaries of the councillors and additional administrative staff to support the micro-councils."

Mr Stanhope has been a vocal critic of Mr Barr over his government's handling of the territory budget, health system and social housing.

MORE A.C.T. POLITICS NEWS:

The former chief minister's comments came as the ACT seeks to overturn a 24-year-old Federal Parliament bill which bans the territory from legislating on voluntary assisted dying.

The renewed push to overturn the Commonwealth ban has reignited discussions about political representation in the ACT.

Professor Kim Rubenstein, a legal history expert at the University of Canberra, said the Commonwealth's electoral act should be amended to allow for four ACT senators. The act was amended in 1975 to allow for two senators in both the ACT and Northern Territory.

"The ACT has doubled in size since 1975, and in that time there have been increases to the states' representation ... they have increased from 10 to 12," she said.

In the latest edition of Public Sector Informant, Professor Rubenstein argued the ACT was "trailing" the states when it came to "quality of our representation".

The Canberra Times asked ACT Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee about her thoughts on local councils but her office declined to comment.

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