Last year the ACT Legislative Assembly sat for the least amount of time since 1989, and there is plenty of speculation over why that was.

The annual report says the Legislative Assembly sat for just 29 days in 2012-13, a total of 222 hours. That is reportedly the least amount of time since it was created. It is certainly less than the 42 days sat in 2011-12 or the 44 days MLAs sat for in 2010-2011.

MLAs spent an average of eight hours in chamber when they were called, knocking off at about 5:40pm. Two sittings lasted past 10:00pm.

The lunch break for Members of the Legislative Assembly was extended from 90 minutes last year to two hours this year.

More than 1,000 questions without notice were asked across this year’s sessions, with the Assembly passing 37 bills.

Despite receiving fewer Freedom of Information (FOI) requests last financial year, the Assembly managed to process less than half within the minimum timeframe.

Just 285 of the 599 FOI requests received were processed within 30 days. Ten requests took more than 91 days to process. Nearly 85 were not finalised at the end of the financial year. The annual report blames the sluggishness in approvals on the requirement to refer documents to third parties for consultation.

ACT Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson says the Government is trying to avoid scrutiny by keeping the Legislative Assembly on their feet and out of chambers.

“We want to see more sitting days, we want to see those sitting days extended. The Government has a different view,” Hanson said.

“Quite clearly the Assembly is a mechanism for the Opposition to hold the Government to account and it does appear that this is a Government that wants to reduce as much as possible the Opposition's opportunity to do that.”

Manager of Government Business Simon Corbell says the long-term average presents a different picture: “Well the figure's not low... in fact, it's consistent with the long term trends since 2009 [when] the Assembly has sat for either 13 or 14 sitting weeks a year.”

“The only exception being the 2012 election when the Assembly only managed to sit for 10 weeks,” he said.