Question Time in the ACT Legislative Assembly was a tad subdued today following Chief Minister Jon Stanhope’s motion this morning to support the Australian Greens’ Australian Capital Territory (Self Government) Amendment (Disallowance and Amendment Power of the Commonwealth) Bill 2010.

The Bill seeks to remove section 35 of the Self Government Act, which enables a Commonwealth veto of Territory law.

The motion passed with support from the ACT Greens, but the Canberra Liberals voted against it. Opposition Leader Zed Seselja argued the Bill, the same Bill his Liberal colleague ACT Senator Gary Humphries crossed the floor to support in 2006, has too narrow a focus.

“There’s a fair amount of deja vu about this debate,” Seselja said in the chamber.

“This narrow focus, which is the obsession of the Labor Party and the Greens is not the way to go. It’s counter productive, it doesn’t consider all the issues, it doesn’t bring the community along with us and my amendment [to the motion] again calls on the Assembly to support a much broader process which looks at autonomy in all forms.

“We’ve argued for some time that if you make it a narrow focus you won’t be successful, you won’t get the change that the people of the ACT would like.

“Why wouldn’t you go broader? We could look at the ability of us to decide our own size, you could look at issues around the NCA and its interference in planning the ACT.”

In a press release after the debate Stanhope said the Liberals had, “shown contempt for the democratic rights of the people of Canberra by voting against a Legislative Assembly motion calling for the ACT to be treated equally with the states”. The Chief questioned their motivations.

More debate over Federal Bills continued in Question Time with Seselja asking Treasurer Katy Gallagher about the outcomes of the carbon tax for the ACT economy.

Gallagher pointed out that as the details of the tax have not been finalised it’s impossible to tell and that even if they were, as the Territory Government have no power over Federal decisions.

“This Government has always supported a carbon tax,” Gallagher said, “We’re not climate change deniers on this side of the Assembly.

“We believe there needs to be a price on carbon and we’re supportive of moves in that direction.”

The Liberals’ Brendan Smyth questioned Minister Andrew Barr about the clashing of the Enlighten Festival and the Skyfire shows.

The Greens’ leader Meredith Hunter questioned Barr over progress on the indigenous achievement gap in ACT schools.

Liberal MLA Steve Doszpot questioned Barr over $100 teacher registration fees at the new Teacher Quality Institute, Barr said other jurisdictions have similar fees, later saying in NSW fees are between $125-145.

The Greens’ Caroline Le Couter grilled Minister Simon Corbell over waste and green bins. Corbell said submissions for the new waste strategy had closed and thanked Le Couteur for her submission, pointing out the Liberal Party had not written one.

There was a bit of noise from the Opposition benches.

Corbell then spoke about the cost/benefit analysis of green bins, which have yet to be trialled in the ACT.

“Detailed cost/benefit analysis does indicate the third green bin is more expensive and less effective,” Corbell said.

“The third bin works well for households that separate their waste, but there can be a sizable number of households who do not.”

Alistair Coe wanted to know what was going on with gaming reforms to deal with problem gamblers, Barr deferred to ongoing discussions with representatives from other jurisdictions on the issue, effectively deflecting what is a really touchy subject for the Labor Party who benefit substantially from poker machine revenue in Labor clubs.

The Greens’ Amanda Bresnan took Stanhope to task over more failure from ACTION buses to deliver services, the Chief admitting 20 services a day have not run in the last week.

Not a good look the day after the publicly run company launched their new ticketing system “Myway”.

The rest of QT was all drugs, ambulances and women’s rights. Nothing to see here people.