Legislative Assembly of the Australian Capital Territory

Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly
Type
Type	Unicameral
Houses	Legislative Assembly
History
Founded	1989
Leadership
Speaker	Joy Burch, Labor Since 2016
Chief Minister	Andrew Barr, Labor Since 2014
Structure
Seats	25
Legislative Assembly political groups	Government (14)      Labor (12)      Greens (2) Opposition      Liberal (11)
Meeting place
Legislative Assembly Building, Canberra
Website
www.parliament.act.gov.au

The Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly (formally the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory) is the unicameral legislature of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It sits in the Legislative Assembly Building on Civic Square, close to the centre of the city of Canberra.

The Assembly was created by four acts of the Commonwealth Parliament in 1988, including the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988. The first election was held on 4 March 1989 and the assembly first sat on 11 May that year. Until this point, the ACT had been directly administered by the Commonwealth Government. It replaced the House of Assembly (also known for a period as the Legislative Assembly), which existed from 1976 to 1986, but had no executive power, with a principal function of advising the Commonwealth on matters relating to the Territory.

Since October 2016, the Legislative Assembly has had five members elected from each of five electorates,Brindabella, Ginninderra, Kurrajong, Murrumbidgee and Yerrabi. Members are elected for four-year terms by the Hare-Clark system, a variation of the Single Transferable Vote form of proportional representation.

Previously the Legislative Assembly had 17 members elected from three electorates—Brindabella and Ginninderra, which each had five members, and Molonglo, which had seven members. In 2014 the Assembly voted to expand the number of members, with the change to take effect at the 2016 election.