Governing the City State - Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate ...

capacity of the Commonwealth Executive to administratively overturn a law validly made bythe Assembly. This last occurred under Prime Minister Howard, when the Civil Unions Act2006 was disallowed by the Governor-General on the Commonwealth Government’s advice.The power of the Commonwealth Parliament to legislate for territories is not questioned,especially in relation to the seat of the national capital, but a legislative “disallowance”process would provide for greater scrutiny, transparency and debate than the administrativeprocedures set out in section 35 of the Self Government Act.The proposed powers of the Assembly were the subject of much discussion during debate onthe Self Government Act. Professor George Williams, Anthony Mason Professor of Law atthe University of New South Wales and regular contributor to the Sydney Morning Herald,recently advocated greater responsibilities being given to the Assembly:As a matter of democratic principle and good governance, the Commonwealth should notremove power from a self-governing jurisdiction. Removing power is a blunt instrument thatprevents the making of any laws on a subject, whether for good or ill. It also calls intoquestion the good faith of the Commonwealth in granting self-government to the territories inthe first place. 11Size of the AssemblyElections for the First Assembly were held in March 1989 and the Assembly first met in Mayof that year. The General Election for the current 7 th Assembly was held on 18 October2008, and its first meeting took place on 5 November 2008.The Assembly is a unicameral parliament of 17 members elected from three multi-memberelectorates: Brindabella, Ginninderra and Molonglo. Brindabella and Ginninderra return fivemembers each, and Molonglo seven. Members are elected using the Hare-Clark system ofproportional representation and serve a fixed four-year term.The size of the ACT Executive is limited to the Chief Minister and up to four Ministers bysection 41 of the Self Government Act. While that number could be increased by enactmentof the Assembly, in a chamber of seventeen members where minority government is thenorm, increasing the size of the ministry is not practical given the need for governmentMembers to fulfil other parliamentary roles, including backbenchers participating fully andproperly in the ongoing work of the Assembly and its Committees.The appropriate size of the Assembly has been the subject of much discussion since the firstconsiderations of self government, and remains so today. In its 1984 report to the thenMinister for Territories and Local Government the Task Force on the Implementation of11 Williams, G. (2010) “Euthanasia Bill Needed for Healthy Democracy”, Sydney Morning Herald. 9 November.http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/euthanasia-bill-needed-for-healthy-democracy-20101108-17kh8.html?skin=text-onlyContext for the Review: 31