Bill Stefaniak remembers a more collegiate time in the early days of the Legislative Assembly. He reckons he's found a way to bring back the spirit of collaboration.
The former Liberal opposition leader turned Belco Party leader has outlined a boldly different way for ministers and Legislative Assembly committees to work together.
"There's 25 people in the Assembly. You don't need nine ministers. I know the current government has that. ... But you literally don't need that and you'd save a considerable amount of money if you went back to six ministers," Mr Stefaniak said.
Then, in Mr Stefaniak's radical reimagining of how the territory is governed, ministers would sit as the chairs of committees related to their portfolios, bringing in the experience and thoughts of other members of the Assembly, regardless of their parties.
"Now, the minister's obviously got the day-to-day running of the department. But important issues would always go to the committee and the committee would comprise not only government members but crossbench and opposition members of the Assembly," he said.
"That way all members of the Assembly get to have a say in the governing of the territory, regardless if they're in opposition or not. All good ideas have the facility to be expressed, looked at, studied in a committee. The committee of course would have the full departmental resources to assist it.
"And I think that would just tend to foster a much greater spirit of collaboration in the Assembly."
Mr Stefaniak said "even the silliest, the thickest member of the Assembly probably has a couple of really good ideas" which could be taken on board in this committee process.
But committees examining budget estimates and annual reports would still be established without the presence of ministers.
"That would be something to be looked at," Mr Stefaniak said.
The Legislative Assembly in 2013 passed a law to allow no more than nine ministers, increasing the cabinet from five. Nine ministers now share 35 portfolios.
Mr Stefaniak attributed the idea to Trevor Kaine, the second chief minister of the ACT who died more than 15 years ago.
"I'm not quite sure whether he actually ever took it to the media or just floated it within the Liberal party room at the time," he said.
It's not the only unconventional idea Mr Stefaniak, who retired from the Assembly in 2008 and unsuccessfully ran in Ginninderra in 2020, has put forward during the election campaign.
In August, he suggested a specialist police force should be attached to the ACT's corruption watchdog to investigate and stamp our wrongdoing in the territory's public service.
"The problem [and] potential problem of corruption could be largely overcome by the government adopting for, say, an initial contract of two years, four to six ex-detective sergeants and place them either in [the Chief Minister's Directorate] or probably better still (to keep it at arm's length from government) attach them to our new Integrity Commission," Mr Stefaniak told The Canberra Times.
The Belco Party leader said the party would push for the corruption police force if it won seats at the October election.
