Australian Capital Territory

About Parliament | History | Territory symbols | Chartist checkbox | Did you know?

About Parliament

• The ACT Legislative Assembly is a single House made up of 18 elected Members. Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) generally hold office for a fixed term of three years.
• Elections are run using a proportional representation electoral system known as the Hare-Clark system, similar to that used in Tasmanian House of Assembly elections.
• Casual vacancies in the Legislative Assembly are filled by a re-count, which means that the second most preferred candidate in the affected electorate at the last general election is selected. This avoids the need for a by-election.
• Voting in ACT elections is compulsory for all citizens aged 18 years or over who have lived at their current address for one month or more.

Histroy

• Section 125 of the Australian Constitution states that the seat of the Commonwealth Government will be in territory given to or acquired by the Commonwealth; that this place should belong to the Commonwealth, and that it should be located in New South Wales 'not less than 100 miles from Sydney'.
• In 1908, the Commonwealth Parliament chose the Yass-Canberra area to be the site of Australia's national capital.
• In 1910, New South Wales gave up the land which then became the Federal Capital Territory. Commonwealth Parliament passed laws placing the Minister for Territories in charge of the new Territory.
• The Federal Capital Territory was established in 1911. It became the Australian Capital Territory in 1938.
• Until 1989, the ACT was managed by the Federal Minister responsible for Territories, who was advised by various bodies over the years. In a referendum held in 1978, voters in the ACT rejected a proposal for self-government, with 63% voting in favour of the proposition that the 'present arrangements for governing the Australian capital should continue for the time being'. Thirty percent of voters favoured self-government with a locally elected body with state-like powers, and 6% voted for a locally elected body with powers and functions similar to those of local government.
• Self-government began in 1988. The Federal Parliament passed the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act, which gave the ACT the right to govern itself.
• The first elections for the new parliament were held in March 1989. The first sitting of the new Legislative Assembly took place in May that same year.

Territory symbols

The ACT has no official colours, but blue and gold are used by most sporting teams.

	The Australian Capital Territory has no Coat of Arms. However, the Coat of Arms for Canberra, the national capital of Australia, was granted by King George V in 1928. The Canberra Coat of Arms shows a shield supported by two swans. One swan is black and the other white, symbolising the Aboriginal and European people of Australia. The Coat of Arms bears the motto ‘For the Queen, the Law and the People’.
	The ACT has had its own flag since 1993. It is based on the first flag for the city of Canberra. It uses Canberra's colours of blue and gold and shows the Coat of Arms and Southern Cross.
	The building which houses the Legislative Assembly is situated adjacent to the Civic Square in the centre of Canberra. The chamber can be found in the South Building, which was refurbished in April 1993 by Mitchell, Guirdola and Thorp, the same architects who designed the Commonwealth Parliament House. It was used for sittings for the first time in February 1994.
	The Gang Gang Cockatoo was adopted as the Faunal Emblem for the Territory on 27 February 1997.
	The Royal Bluebell was declared the official Floral Emblem on 26 May 1982.

Chartist checkbox

Australian Capital Territory - Self-government from 1989

Did you know?

• The ACT has no local council. Matters normally looked after by a council are dealt with by the Legislative Assembly. The ACT Legislative Assembly is the only governing body in Australia that has government responsibilities at both a State and local level.
• As the ACT is not a state, it is represented at the Federal level by two Senators, elected for the term of the House of Representatives, that is, not more than three-years.
• The small population of the ACT means that it is currently represented by only two Members in the House of Representatives: the Members for Canberra and Fraser.
• The leader of the government in the ACT is known as the Chief Minister.