Chief Minister and Treasurer Andrew Barr and the 2024-25 Budget. Does he hold too much power in his hands? Photo: Ian Bushnell.
Independents for Canberra want the Chief Minister and Treasurer roles to be split to dilute the concentration of power in the Chief Minister’s office.
If they manage to hold the balance of power in the Legislative Assembly after the October election, the group will push to prevent the same person from being both Chief Minister and Treasurer.
Independents for Canberra leader Thomas Emerson said the group was responding to community concerns about how much power is held in the Chief Minister’s office.
“Democracy thrives on dynamic tension,” Mr Emerson said.
“It is well known that very little happens in the ACT without the say-so of our current Chief Minister, who is also the Treasurer.
“Other Labor-Greens ministers seem to have little capacity to challenge ‘the Chief’.”
Mr Emerson said the Greens Environment Minister had recently lamented that Cabinet was unwilling to deliver a more ambitious environmental policy.
“When the minister responsible for the environment can’t actually deliver better environmental outcomes, Canberrans are rightly asking, ‘Who is the Cabinet, exactly?’” he said.
Mr Emerson said allowing the leader to also hold the purse strings puts the integrity of democracy at risk.
“The current Chief Minister surely knows that, which is why he promised to hand over the Treasury portfolio after the 2020 election,” he said.
“That promise was not upheld. The question is, why not?”
But ACT Labor hit back, saying the dual role was a feature of most small parliaments and Cabinet was more than just the Chief Minister.
A spokesperson said every ACT Chief Minister since 1989 had concurrently held the Chief Minister and Treasury portfolios for some, or all, of their term in office.
A Chief Minister or Premier who was also Treasurer had also occurred in the Northern Territory, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia.
The Labor spokesperson said the current ACT Cabinet had nine members and an Expenditure Review Sub Committee (ERC) that consisted of the three most senior members of the Government – the Chief Minister, the Deputy Chief Minister and the Attorney-General.
“The Expenditure Review Committee makes recommendations to the full Cabinet. Budget decisions are made by the full Cabinet,” the spokesperson said.
The Australian Capital Territory Self Government Act required the elected Chief Minister to determine administrative arrangements and appoint ministers.
“Our focus is delivering a positive plan for Canberra’s future, and not on horse trading future administrative arrangements and ministerial responsibilities,” the spokesperson said.
Mr Emerson also took aim at the Labor and the Greens working together, saying the Legislative Assembly needed more checks and balances.
He said the ACT’s unicameral parliamentary system was set up for minority government, where genuine negotiation and ongoing compromise were commonplace.
“That’s been thwarted by Labor and the Greens working as a coalition,” Mr Emerson said.
“Canberrans want to be participants in a living democracy, not spectators to a perpetual power-sharing arrangement. People want to see an open debate where a genuine contest of ideas is not only possible but encouraged.”
Loading ...
