And here's the new Parliamentary and Governing Agreement for the ACT.

https://www.cmtedd.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/1654077/Parliamentary-Agreement-for-the-10th-Legislative-Assembly.pdf https://twitter.com/grugstan/status/1323104954626658305

First things that jump out at me are it's much longer and much more professionally presented than the last three Agreements.

The 2008, 2012 and even 2016 Agreement were roughly drawn up Word docs, looking more like a contract than a big flashy Government report.

The second is this: a statement of shared principles which is an explicit recognition of shared ideology and the start of a real political coalition - and is a departure from the framing of previous agreement as being dragged to the negotiating table.

This last line is interesting. One of the noteworthy things the ACT Greens did in the last term was having shared senior staff. The Chief of Staff, Media Adviser, Communications Adviser and Strategic Policy Adviser were shared between the Minister's and crossbencher's offices.

Here's another one. Joint party room meetings quarterly. I think this might be the first time there's been joint party room meetings outside of the parties of the Liberal National Coalition.

Another structural change. Previous Agreements had an appendix on Greens policies Labor was bound to support, parliamentary and executive reform, and Labor's policy platform.

This one puts the Greens' platform on equal footing to Labor's - and the binding is on shared priorities

Good catch here. Executive proposals to Cabinet but ultimately rejected now cannot be reintroduced as private members' bills. I guess this is to counter "double dipping" by the Greens, testing Cabinet support before taking it to the Opposition. https://twitter.com/MJRHiscox/status/1323113275236646914?s=20

Something noteworthy by omission: the removal of Executive Member's Business, a standing orders innovation in the last two terms. Here's the clause from the 2012 Agreement.

EMB essentially meant that Greens Ministers (and theoretically Labor Ministers although I believe this was only exercised twice by the Chief Minister) can bring private member's motions before the Assembly.

I'll circle back to specific policies but here's the top-line shared policy priorities.

This is a new section too - agreed legislative reform - and speaks to an previous issue where in principle agreement to review an issue or enact a policy doesn't necessarily result in a specific legislative change the Greens wanted.

Some VERY interesting items here.

Several of these are perennial Greens issues - items that come up every term but ultimately get deferred or fall into a black hole of reviews and inquiries.

Entertainment precincts and SARP reforms have been kicking around for nearly a decade.

Obviously I'm really excited about 9 and 15 since they're issues I worked a lot on when I was in the Assembly, but 2, 6 and 13 will have massive and lasting influence on future reforms in other states. Really groundbreaking stuff.

Another newish section - agreed executive reform. Great anti-privatization stuff here but I'm really excited by 3

Codetermination was a core tenet of the Greens working group on public sector reform we had a few years ago. Amazing to see some of the policies being put into force

Here's the administrative reforms. This is the second time "wellbeing indicators" has been mentioned in the Agreement - the other being restructuring the seven Parliamentary Committees around them.

Another thing that's noteworthy through omission.

This is the first Agreement without a section on electoral or Parliamentary reforms. Nothing on changes to standing orders. Nothing about citizen's questions. Nothing on increasing the size of the Assembly.

This thread is for the five people in Australia who care about the inner workings of the ACT Legislative Assembly and the ACT Directorates.

okay let's circle back to the shared policy priorities.

next steps on climate change action

Pretty hefty ones here.

No new gas in greenfield or infill by 2023 and new minimum energy efficiency (and heating) standards for rentals.

Still no hard urban boundary tho.

more and better housing options for Canberrans

Very solid housing changes including an extra 140 public housing dwellings and 600 "affordable" housing dwellings.

actions to improve Canberra's planning system

My big two here are the "community compact" which might work to include people who aren't just NIMBYs and development shills in planning consultation and enshrining a 30% canopy target.

building Light Rail Stage 2

Pretty uncontroversial after the first ACT election that wasn't a referendum on Light Rail in a decade.

Biggest thing is the spur to Mawson along Athllon Drive instead of terminating at Westfield Woden.

reducing harm from gaming while supporting sustainable clubs

this is a touchy one. the ACT Labor Party is one of the biggest owners of pokies in Canberra through the Labor Clubs, and the CFMEU is up there too with the Tradies Clubs.

early childhood education

1 day per week of free education for all three year olds as a pathway to UNIVERSAL EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION, BAYBEEEEEE

fostering neighbourhood democracy

After the successful deliberative democracy and participatory budgeting pilots last term, rollout across five suburbs including (hopefully) shifting discretionary City Services expenditure to local community decision making.

And that's just about it. We'll find out who the new (possibly nine?) Ministers will be tomorrow.

This has been Your Canberra Update.

For anyone who wants to compare this to previous Agreements, here's 2008 ... https://twitter.com/grugstan/status/1323107715460157440?s=20

... 2012 ... https://twitter.com/grugstan/status/1323108218680172545?s=20

... and 2016. https://twitter.com/grugstan/status/1323108504215846919?s=20