History of The Australian Capital Territory - Government and The ACT - Self-government

Self-government

On 6 December 1988, the ACT was granted full self-government with the passage of the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988. The first elections were held 4 March 1989, and the inaugural 17-member Legislative Assembly moved into former public service buildings at 1 Constitution Avenue, Civic on 11 May 1989. The Australian Labor Party formed the ACT's first government, led by Chief Minister Rosemary Follett, who made history as Australia's first female head of government. Although since the commencement of self-government, ACT law has continued to apply in general to the Jervis Bay Territory under section 4A of the Jervis Bay Territory Acceptance Act 1915, the ACT as defined under the Self-Government Act 1988 does not include Jervis Bay, which continues to be administered by the Commonwealth. Since 1992, members of the Assembly have been elected by the Hare-Clark proportional representation system from three multi-member electorates, which replaced the modified D'Hondt method used in the inaugural election, in which the 17 representatives were elected from a territory-wide electorate.

Whereas the ACT's federal electorates have been mainly held by Labor, the Liberal Party has been able to gain some footing in the ACT Assembly, and were in government for just over eight of the Assembly's 21-year history. Most of this was during a period of six and half years from 1995 and 2001, which ended when Labor gained a 14.1% swing at the polls. In contrast to the state elections, Labor has polled at least seven percentage points more than the Liberals at every federal election since 1990, and their average lead since then has been 15 percentage points.

The initial years of self-government were difficult and unstable. A majority of ACT residents had opposed self-government and had it imposed upon them by the federal parliament, and at the first election, 4 of the 17 seats were won by anti-self-government single-issue parties due to a protest vote by disgruntled territorians, and a total of 8 were won by minor parties and independents. Follett and Labor won only four seats and had to form a minority government, as seven groups were represented in total. Some of the anti-self-government representatives sought to disrupt the territory's legislature from the inside, and a no-confidence motion toppled Labor after only seven months. Trevor Kaine and the Liberals ruled for 18 months before being deposed, and Follett's Labor returned, the third government in 25 months. In 1992, Labor won eight seats, and the minor parties and independents won only three. Stability increased, and in 1995, Kate Carnell became the first elected Liberal chief minister. In 1998 Carnell became the first chief minister to be re-elected. She was regarded as a proactive leader but resigned in 2000 after two independents who had supported her minority government withdrew their support. At the time, she had been embroiled in controversy over the funding of the Canberra Stadium and an accidental fatality caused by the Royal Canberra Hospital implosion. Labor have won the three elections since 2001, and in 2004 formed the first majority government in the territory, but after the 2008 election were forced into minority government with the Greens.

In 2006, the majority Labor government made sweeping changes to the education system, shutting down 23 schools across the territory. These were made in the face of sustained public opposition, and since then, there have been campaigns from opposition parties and the community to re-open some of them. This included the 2008 election, where it was a major topic.

Since the 1993 creation of the National Native Title Tribunal, there have been four separate claims to Native Title lodged over alienated lands in the ACT by representatives of the Ngunnawal communities, in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2002. The first two of these were discontinued after reaching a Federal Court hearing, and the third was rejected as not meeting applicable provisions. The fourth claim was dismissed.

In 2001, the ACT government entered into a cooperative agreement with the Aboriginal community over the management of Namadgi National Park. The deal no longer exists.

In the 1990s, a number of activities which are or were illegal in other Australian states were legalised in the ACT. These include the sale of X-rated pornographic materials (1989) and prostitution in brothels (1992), although brothels are only permitted to operate in the suburbs of Hume, Mitchell and Fyshwick. The personal use of cannabis was decriminalised in 1992 and abortion was decriminalised in 2002. In 2006, the ACT Government attempted to introduce a law recognising civil unions, but it was overturned by the federal government.