The Liberal Opposition in the ACT Legislative Assembly has dwindled from nine seats to seven after two MPs were suspended from the Liberal party room for voting against the party line.
That means the crossbench of Greens, independents and now rebel Liberals outnumbers the official Opposition – unless the Liberals can reconcile.
What provoked Liberal Opposition Leader Leanne Castley to cut her parliamentary strength by one-fifth?
Elizabeth Lee (who led the party in the 2024 territory election) and former shadow minister Peter Cain voted for a Greens motion to extend the 2026 sitting calendar from 12 weeks to 13. In other words, they wanted the Legislative Assembly to sit for an extra week to give more time for legislation to be debated, the government to be questioned, and so on.
The motion was unsuccessful, so there will only be 12 sitting weeks next year – down from as many as 15 weeks in earlier years.
As I told WIN News last night, it seems like a weird “purity test” for the Liberals to insist on. The Liberals have always made it a point of pride that, unlike the Labor Party, they allow MPs to vote with their conscience. In this case, Lee and Cain weren’t even rebelling on party policy, but on parliamentary administration.
The Legislative Assembly is the Australian Capital Territory’s parliament. It is elected by proportional representation, so each electorate has five local members. While Labor has been in government in the ACT since 2001, for most of that time they have been in minority: governing with or otherwise sharing power with the Greens.
A larger crossbench gives the Labor Government three options for getting legislation passed: vote with the Liberals, vote with the Greens or vote with independents and suspended Liberals. That would be a coup for Chief Minister Andrew Barr, who has already celebrated being able to move away from the Greens towards “the centre” in this term.
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