Assembly Expansion moves forward

Oh and they said they hadn’t returned my call and email of two months previously becuase they thought it was a student project and hadn’t realised it was actually going to be published. And still didn’t talk to me.

(Can you tell I’m somewhat bitter and throughly unenthusiastic about ever trying to get comments from Corbell again?)

K

Well all I was after was a comment one way or the other. They didn’t ahve to answer anything if they didn’t want to.

What I got was a promise of a call from someone in the department which never came and who probably couldn’t answer my questions anyway (they were going to explain to me the finer points of land titles in the ACT when I just about already ahd my head around them).

K

Oh and Corbell bought some natural sour worms next to me int he Civic chemist once. I almost turned around and demanded to know why his staff don’t return any phone calls (this had been particuarly on my nerves at the time) but managed not to.

K

I almost ran away screaming when I spotted Kerry Tucker one day

But she’s one of the shyest, nicest people I’ve met!

Ms. Carnell didn’t seem to mind being talked to in public places. Really, if you are famous for one reason or another it is something you should expect, it is the gift or curse (depending on how you look at it) that comes with fame.

I’ve spotted Corbell once or twice in Civic and made sure I avoided him, I almost ran away screaming when I spotted Kerry Tucker one day.

Anyways, supermarket confrontations are one of the few ways you can get in touch with the local government, at least you know the message has gone to the right person and not been dumped in the bin by the girl on the phone.

I saw Stanhope at the mall once too with his media advisor. I had been to see him as a journalist only a few weeks before but alas, he did not acknowledge me.

Roslyn Dundas said that although she didn’t mind people talking to her, every now and then she did get tired of being accosted in the supermarket.

K

Rightio, stay clear of Westfield Belconnen on weekends, thanks for the warning Maelinar.

I once saw Kate Carnell in City Supabarn and had a little chat with her, I think she was choosing a steak at the time.

I had an interesting run in with the Cheif Minister himself this very weekend in Belconnen Mall.

I was entering the Mall via the overhead walkway, he was walking the other way. He looked at me with that ‘you should know me’ look that I considered at the time to be the ‘I just had a wank but nobody knows about it yet’ look.

What was really going on in my head was ‘geezus, that guy would get mistaken for Stanhope, hope he doesn’t get beaten up by mistake’…

He just happened to be walking by about an hour later, still in the mall – even though he was exiting when I saw him… Perhaps milling for some votes ?

The cruelty sank in later when I realised that I am in the same feed lot as him.

Where’re the worthies if the No Self Govt. Party when we need them – wish I’d voted for them then. If most of us wanted it, is it possible the ACT can be returned to the Govt. or is that impossible now and just wishful thinking ? (Was just remembering the days when the ACT actually worked and everyone tube stock plants when they moved to a new house).

Thumper, you’re welcome to your opinion, but Id say that talking about the size of the assembly and the process for changing it is entirely within the remit of the Chief Minister.

The NT is not constitutionally required to belong to the Commonwealth.

Which means it can become a state where as the ACT can’t without a constitutional amendment. However, again, that has nothing to do with the size of the parliament, nor with the process of changing it. Just as the Federal Parliament was able to give the ACT the power to elect their own government they were also able to cede the right to choose how many parliamentarians there are, they just chose not to. That, I think, is what Stanhope was having a whinge about.

But thumper, there are still so many worthy party members (from both sides) still having to do work of value to earn their way in the world.

This gravy train must be expanded to include them!

Plus, without expanding, how can they justify knocking down city hill to build their pleasure dome?

The NT is not constitutionally required to belong to the Commonwealth. If being the Capital Territory is such a problem then we can allways cut the urban areas down to a city council in NSW.

Otherwise federal intervention goes with the territory (boom ’tish)

You actually have to renominate to be included in the count back, and if you’d done that I doubt you’d renominate.

Given the inglorious history of the legislative assembly that assumption would be a triumph of hope over experience.

125. The seat of Government of the Commonwealth shall be determined by the Parliament, and shall be within territory which shall have been granted to or acquired by the Commonwealth, and shall be vested in and belong to the Commonwealth…

That still has nothing to do with the number of MLAs, both the ACT and the NT were given self government through acts of the federal parliment, the ACT one says how many members the parliment will have, my understanding is that the NT legislation doesn’t. It’s a simple as that.

my point is that as things stand votes cast long before and in possibly very different circumstances (maybe they left town and wrote a book about how much they hate canberra?) suddenly spring into action.

You actually have to renominate to be included in the count back, and if you’d done that I doubt you’d renominate.

I never said it would be cheap.

But democracy isn’t.

We could just elect a single chief minister every four years and let him/her take care of all the details.

or appoint one for life.

my point is that as things stand votes cast long before and in possibly very different circumstances (maybe they left town and wrote a book about how much they hate canberra?) suddenly spring into action.

I think Gungahlin and Woden shouldn’t be lumped in the same electorate. It just doesn’t make sense.

k

A bi-election may be expensive, but it is more democratic than a countback. A MP/MLA/whatever other type of elected member you can think of, should be elected by the electorate at the time they are appointed to parliament, not some time beforehand. There should also be a restriction whereby a vacancy is not filled when there is only a short period of time until the next election (maybe 6-12 months).

I would be in favour of each member having their own electorate, the process would be slightly less brain-bending then.

Out of curiosity – JB, so you are saying a bi-election makes more sense financially than filling a casual vacancy via a countback? Doesn’t appear to be too much logic inserted into that assertion as you could count on the average punter being dissatisfied with the prospect of forking out the $$$ to do so.

Doesn’t a countback maintain the integrity of the voting system that exists in the ACT?

I think Belconnen and Tuggeranong have the right to have the same number of represnetatives as the Molonglo electorate

Ahem, Areaman,

125. The seat of Government of the Commonwealth shall be determined by the Parliament, and shall be within territory which shall have been granted to or acquired by the Commonwealth, and shall be vested in and belong to the Commonwealth…

You and your mates can re-aquaint yourselves with the document here.

The ACT belongs to the Commonwealth, that’s why it is different to the NT.

Bonfire, please the ACT is the least represented jurisdiction in the country, yet has to deal with both state and local issues. A part time council dealing with all those issues would be completely unworkable.

Spectra, I’d say that if both sides could agree on an option they could put a fair bit of pressure on the feds.

Ralph, it’s not a constitutional issue, it’s an issue with the ACT self goverment act. The NT, which you’d think would be in a similar situation doesn’t need an act of federal parliament to change how many MLAs it has.

Someone give Stanhope a copy of the constitution. They have littled pocket sized ones.

Looks like the expansion may be off anyway. I heard the territories minister on the radio this morning basically saying that it wasn’t going to happen. Which sounds like pretty much the end of that.

have you also noticed how the assembly promoted themselves to a “parliament” on the sly?

http://www.parliament.act.gov.au/

what a farce!

do away with ‘ministers’ altogether. what a joke. people – we are 300k strong.

we need a part time council, with professional administrators.

Go for it JB.

I support this expansions simply becasue it increases my own odds of one day being able to holiday abroad under the guise of “building international relationships”.

I might build some relationships of my own in Las Vegas (In case we want to redevelope our casino), then maybe New Orleans (in case we want Mardi Gras to be part of our Mulitcultural Festival) and then Hawaii (so we can examine the feasability of building a tropical paradise in Majura).

Furthermore, if I get into public housing now; I can live there for ever on my eneormous pay packet without ever having to sign another mortgage again!

Time for a RiotACT Party Conference to elect our Candidates? Venue/date/time?

On the other hand, if they keep the representation proportional, a RiotACT ticket would be in with some sort of chance come 2008.

(our 100% growth year on year has been quite reliable for some time now)