Self Government to be reviewed

Gungahlin Al said :

So you’d prefer your hospitals, transport and schools to be managed by the NSW Government I take it?

Well, its not like they could make things worse is it?

What I would actually prefer is our current members to concentrate their time on the day to day running of our city as a good council should, instead of wasting it on empire building and national issues that are out of their purview.
And for what’s its worth, I would actually be OK with a 21 member assembly.

It appears to me on reading the Act that more members can be made through regulations:

8 Legislative Assembly

(1) There shall be a Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory.

(2) Subject to subsection (3), the Assembly shall consist of 17 members.

(3) The regulations may fix a different number of members for the purpose of subsection (2), but regulations shall not be made for that purpose except in accordance with a resolution passed by the Assembly.

So not sure what a review of the Act would accomplish? But, I would still vote to get rid of the buggers entirely.

Gungahlin Al said :

So you’d prefer your hospitals, transport and schools to be managed by the NSW Government I take it?

3 of our 4 hospitals are private.
our only public transport is a bus service;
our better school are private.
How about turning the remaining hospital, ACTION and the public schools into companies and letting them run themselves?
or, just go back to the NCDC – you know, a system that *worked*.

Gungahlin Al said :

So you’d prefer your hospitals, transport and schools to be managed by the NSW Government I take it?

Actually Al, our hospital is worse than NSW hospitals by important benchmarks, so yes, I suppose we would. And are you arguing that our public schools and public transport are better than NSW? Have you ever lived there?

Anyway, I suspect this ‘review’ is more about further empire building than about acknowledging that self-government in such a small city has been a costly mistake. The pool of talent of our political class is just too shallow (John Hargreaves? FFS).

(1) Go part-time, except perhaps for a small Executive (perhaps appointed from outside by the members), with an appropriate allowance and loss of perks and the support positions that provide refuge for friends and associates.
(2) Allow ACT and Commonwealth officials to stand and be elected to the part-time positions.
(3) Contract out to anyone who’ll do the work better – yes, Al, this may mean NSW or it may mean another state or a private sector or community body. Or it may mean doing things in-house if that leads to acceptable results.
(4) Limit anyone to two consecutive terms.

Chances of this review producing anything that won’t add to the number of overpaid drones – probably nil.

chewy14 said :

Gungahlin Al said :

This is good news. GCC has been lobbying for years for changes to the Assembly size. A slightly bigger Assembly would mean a permanent fix to the problem of the Molonglo electorate being very spread out geographically, leading to better more balanced representation for Gungahlin, and more realistic workloads for the ministry and therefore better attention to issues of concern to the community.

Agreed,
It must be tough for the current members.
Their workload is obviously huge, what with worrying about gay marriage, euthanasia, refugees and humans rights abuse.
You know, all the day to day stuff that’s really important to the local community.

So you’d prefer your hospitals, transport and schools to be managed by the NSW Government I take it?

Gungahlin Al said :

This is good news. GCC has been lobbying for years for changes to the Assembly size. A slightly bigger Assembly would mean a permanent fix to the problem of the Molonglo electorate being very spread out geographically, leading to better more balanced representation for Gungahlin, and more realistic workloads for the ministry and therefore better attention to issues of concern to the community.

Agreed,
It must be tough for the current members.
Their workload is obviously huge, what with worrying about gay marriage, euthanasia, refugees and humans rights abuse.
You know, all the day to day stuff that’s really important to the local community.

Town Council please. They can study Brisbane if they’d like to see a similar situation, except Brisbane is bigger than Canberra. Ministers? Chiefs of Staff? an Opposition? How many thousand ACT public servants again? Ridiculous. A cheaper method is needed, adn then maybe property prices will come down.

would be nice if they acknowledge the last referendum held in the ACT on the subject and abolished themselves.

dpm said :

Hmmm, having the actual self-Govt MLAs review themselves….. Let’s see if we can predict some outcomes:
1) More assembly members
2) More cabinet MLAs
3) An increase in their salaries
4) The same level ‘service’ to the constituents (i.e. the ACT community)…
Wow, how jaded and bitter do I sound?! Hahaha!

And 5) No self Government.