28 February 2013

Andrew Leigh pushes for 5 x 5

28 February 2013 | johnboy

Labor Member for Fraser Andrew Leigh has published his submission to the ACT Electoral Commission’s Expert Reference Group and it’s inquiry into the size of the ACT Legislative Assembly.

Like any smart observer he wants an expansion to a setup five five electorates each returning five members. (rather than the current nutso 5, 5, 7 arrangement).

As the population of Canberra continues to increase, the interests of the community could be disadvantaged by ongoing underrepresentation. Increasing the Assembly to 25 MLAs (consisting of five electorates, each returning five members) would provide the people of Canberra with a total of 29 elected representatives, or 1 per 12, 931 people. This would still be well below other states and territories (and less than half of what the cube root rule would suggest), but it would be a significant improvement on the current situation. A 25-member Assembly would provide Canberra with a level of representation per-person comparable to that in 1989, when the territory attained self-government.

In my view, a 25-member Assembly is the smallest that ought to be considered. If the Assembly is increased to 25 members, I believe that it should only be done with an indexation formula built in, which would (for example) allow an increase from 25 members to 35 members (seven electorates, each with five members) once the ACT population has increased by a certain amount (eg. 10 per cent) from today’s level. Legislating such an increase would provide a defensible and predictable default for future generations, who could always choose to vary it if they wished.

An increase of the Ministry would also be nice.

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Gungahlin Al1:25 pm 01 Mar 13

Chop71 said :

there are only so many hours in a day…

I agree with that in part, but don’t we pay them already enough?
Maybe give them more staff to cater for more sitting days?

I have still not seen the cost of this proposal.
We can crap on about it all we like but what is the cost?

What is the cost of NOT doing it? Not a week goes by without complaints here about this decision or that, and the costs resulting. It won’t be cheap, but whatever number it might be would be utterly irrelevant without consideration of the alternative.

Good government costs money. Bad government costs more.

thebadtouch1:22 pm 01 Mar 13

Gungahlin Al said :

thebadtouch said :

johnboy said :

The lazy ones rarely get re-elected when younger and hungrier candidates come forward.

I wish! Simon and Andrew somehow got re-elected.

I don’t think they’re lazy at all. Just because they had almost non-existent election campaigns doesn’t mean they don’t work very hard at their jobs. From what I’ve seen, they do.

Who cares what you think Alan? You represent a party that was decimated at the elections!

Chop7111:48 am 01 Mar 13

there are only so many hours in a day…

I agree with that in part, but don’t we pay them already enough?
Maybe give them more staff to cater for more sitting days?

I have still not seen the cost of this proposal.
We can crap on about it all we like but what is the cost?

Gungahlin Al11:06 am 01 Mar 13

thebadtouch said :

johnboy said :

The lazy ones rarely get re-elected when younger and hungrier candidates come forward.

I wish! Simon and Andrew somehow got re-elected.

I don’t think they’re lazy at all. Just because they had almost non-existent election campaigns doesn’t mean they don’t work very hard at their jobs. From what I’ve seen, they do.

justin heywood said :

I understand a politician believing that More politicians would be somehow good for the community. But is there any evidence that this is the case? Are there lines of concerned constituents outside members offices? Is the poor performance and general mediocrity of the current assembly a result of their high workload? I doubt it.

There is an ample supply of evidence of politicians not doing a good job when they are overworked. Advice missed, poor decisions, etc. Look past the 2UE/Daily Tele “all pollies are corrupt/greedy/lazy” mantra and consider they are people in the main who are trying to do the best job they can for their communities, but just like for everyone else, there are only so many hours in a day.

watto2310:16 am 01 Mar 13

Gungahlin Al said :

damien haas said :

I’d like 25 electorates and 25 members. There are occasionally some very lazy MLA’s that coast in on leader quota overflow. Some personal accountability would aid their motivation, resulting in a better outcome for constituents.

That doesn’t stand scrutiny Damien. Single member electorates lead to appalling governance when coupled with a single-house parliament. You kiss goodbye to all accountability for the entire term because there are no checks and balances. Majority single house government was hopeless under Peter Beattie and Anna Bligh, is even more so under Campbell Newman.

We have an Assembly size that suited the ACT years ago for a population half the size. I want good governance, and that means acceptable workloads. I lean the 5×5 model, even though I know it will be very hard for Greens to ever get more than one MLA in a seat. The balance is that ther electorate size is more reasonable to serve and be across the issues of, more affordable to campaign in, and more answerable to specific geographic communities.

3×7 leaves the electorates so large that they continue to only be reasonable for parties to campaign in, except for independent candidates who are well cashed up, which *may* itself point to them being less desirable.

Agree 25 single electorates would mean we’ll always have a labor government and with no upper house, that would be like the howard government controlling both houses or the majority stanhope government we had.

We can whinge all we want but minority government in the ACT provide checks and balances. I know the hardcore lib and lab voters would love to have everything their party wants to be done, but without each other, neither party is good. It would be just like a dictatorship.

thebadtouch8:00 am 01 Mar 13

johnboy said :

The lazy ones rarely get re-elected when younger and hungrier candidates come forward.

I wish! Simon and Andrew somehow got re-elected.

justin heywood10:17 pm 28 Feb 13

I understand a politician believing that More politicians would be somehow good for the community.

But is there any evidence that this is the case? Are there lines of concerned constituents outside members offices? Is the poor performance and general mediocrity of the current assembly a result of their high workload? I doubt it.

Andrew should devote his excellent mind to improving the standard of the current lot. I wouldn’t mind if the entire city was governed by a benevolent dictator, rather than the circus of self-interested fools we have at the moment.

Tetranitrate8:36 pm 28 Feb 13

steveu said :

I don’t think canberra s have been convinced that the local council has actually worked;adding more politicians to the mix isn’t going to help IMHO. Personally I would like to see the cost savings over the last decade since we had them imposed on us.

I’m afraid it’s been more than two decades, time flies and all…

Tetranitrate8:20 pm 28 Feb 13

I don’t think there’s much question of the need to change the system – having electorates with differing numbers of electors and therefore different quotas is pretty poor form.

Question is more 5×5 vs 3×7.

steveu8:18 pm 28 Feb 13

I don’t think canberra s have been convinced that the local council has actually worked;adding more politicians to the mix isn’t going to help IMHO. Personally I would like to see the cost savings over the last decade since we had them imposed on us.

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