A review of the ACT Self Government Act of 1988 has been advised that the Act needs amendment to create a long-term model of self-government for the ACT.

 

In a submission to the ACT Legislative Assembly review committee, Professor George Williams of the University of New South Wales Faculty of Law said the existing law  “left the ACT system of government with several features more akin to a nineteenth century colonial possession than a modern Australian Territory.”

 

He said the current system was “rigid and unresponsive to local opinion and needs”, and also suffered from limitations imposed by the Australian Constitution.

 

Professor Williams said the Act could be amended to enable the ACT Legislative Assembly to determine its own size and maximum number of ministers, and obsolete or inappropriate restrictions such as the power of the Governor General, acting on the advice of the federal executive, to dissolve the  ACT Legislative Assembly, could be deleted.

 

Professor Williams also argued that it would be appropriate to rename important ACT positions and institutions.

 

“Having a legislative assembly rather than a parliament speaks of a body with a lesser status and importance. The same applies to having a chief minister rather than a premier. 

 

"If the ACT is to be truly self-governing and its people to have same rights as other Australians, they need representatives and institutions of equal status.”

 

Professor Williams noted that, unlike the Northern Territory, the ACT may never be able to become a State.

 

“In Capital Duplicators Pty Ltd v Australian Capital Territory (1992) 177CLR 248, the High Court left open the possibility that the ACT cannot become a State because it includes the seat of the federal government. This issue has not been finally resolve, but there is good reason to believe that the ACT does not have a viable path to statehood.”

 

Given that limitation, Professor Williams proposed that amendment of the ACT Self-Government Act should be driven by a local process, ideally a convention to consider its long-term governance arrangements into which the people of the ACT should have direct input.

 

More details of the review of the ACT Self Government act are here. Submissions are required by March 16.