This morning we received some encouraging news: in one of his first acts as Chief Minister this term, Andrew Barr heeded Independents for Canberra’s calls to cede Treasury.
We made a strong case during our campaign for a separation of powers between the Chief Minister and Treasurer. Andrew Barr had held both of these positions concurrently for 10 years - before handing Treasury over to Chris Steel today.
In announcing our commitment to seek to prevent the same person from being both Chief Minister and Treasurer almost three months ago, I said that democracy thrives on dynamic tension. I raised concerns I'd heard from across our community that having the leader also hold the purse strings risked threatening the integrity of our democracy.
Too much power being held in one person’s hands isn’t good for anyone, including that person.
Today’s announcement to split the positions of Treasurer and Chief Ministrer makes for very welcome news after we pushed hard for this change during our campaign. You can find our original media release here and various articles responding to our position here, here, here and here.
Side-by-side news clippings – when we declared our position on 15 August and the announcement from today, 7 November.
It’s energising to have picked up a significant early win like this less than 24 hours after being sworn in. More than that, it just makes sense to have a separation of powers between the Chief Ministry and Treasury.
I’m feeling cautiously optimistic about meaningful change taking place over the next four years, given some of the shifts we’ve already seen in the last couple of days. ACT Labor signed an agreement with me, which they didn’t strictly need to do in order to form government, to implement a range of key policy commitments I took to the election. They have also committed “to engage in good faith with [me] and work collaboratively to achieve the best possible outcomes for our community.” I’ve committed to do the same.
I have no interest in scoring political points for the sake of it, or focusing on how best to elevate myself while pushing down my political ‘opponents’ in the hope of guaranteeing my re-election in another four years. I’m only interested in the thing that drove me to seek election to the Legislative Assembly in the first place; crafting a better, fairer, more inclusive, more exciting future for our community.
I intend to engage in good faith with my colleagues in the Assembly and collaborate across party lines for as long as doing so serves that aim.