2024 Australian Capital Territory (Canberra) Election

1. Background

The Labor party and Andrew Barr are seeking re-election for a 7th term. The Liberal opposition, Elizabeth Lee is attempting to break the 23 year long Labor government. 

On 12 November 2023, Greens MLA, Johnathan Davis resigned and was replaced by Laura Nuttall. In September 2024, Elizabeth Kikkert (Liberal) was disendorsed by allegedly bullying party staff and breaching the Electoral Act 1992, she is now running for re-election under the Family First Party.

Before the election, the party consisted of 10 Labor MLA's, 8 Liberal MLA's, 6 Green MLA's and 1 Family first MLA (Elizabeth Kikkert).

2. Electoral System & Divisions

The ACT elects 5 MLA's (Members of the Legislative Assembly) per each division, and there are 5 electorates/divisions. This totals 25 members who are to be elected to the unicameral parliament by the Hare-Clark system of proportional representation. ACT uses the Robson Rotation to eliminate 'Donkey voting' by giving no advantage to a candidate because they were the first listed candidate. The ACT is also the only place that conducts machine voting and counting in Australia, this is especially useful as it speeds up the counting of Hare-Clark ballots which are quite complicated to count and can take weeks compared to other electoral systems.

The five divisions are:
1. Brindabella: the largest electorate covering more than half of the ACT, covers southern ACT.
2. Ginninderra: western Canberra
3. Kurrajong: contains the city and eastern Canberra, including the Airport.
4. Murrumbidgee: south western Canberra
5. Yerrabi: the smallest ACT electorate, covering northern Canberra

3. Retiring Members

• Joy Burch (Labor, Brindabella)

• Nicole Lawder (Liberal, Brindabella)

1. List of Political Parties

The list of parties that will be running in the elections are:

• ACT Labor - 25 candidates

• Canberra Liberals - 24 candidates

• Independents for Canberra - 20 candidates

• The ACT Greens - 19 candidates

• First Nation Party - 13 candidates (Brindabella, Kurrajong, Yerrabi)

• Family First Party (ACT) - 11 candidates

• Animal Justice Party - 9 candidates

• Democratic Labour Party (DLP) - 9 candidates (Ginninderra, Kurrajong, Yerrabi)

• Belco Party (ACT) - 5 candidates (Ginninderra and Yerrabi)

• Fiona Carrick Independent - 3 candidates (Murrumbidgee)

• Libertarian Party - 2 candidates (Ginninderra)

• Strong Independents - 2 candidates (Kurrajong)

2. Policy Platforms

These are the policy platforms for all parties running in 3 or more electorates.

Labor: "Progressive, Practical, Proven"
A re-elected Labor government wants to hire 800 more healthcare workers, build a new billion dollar north side hospital in Bruce, better walk-in centres, more bulk billing, and new health centres. As for cost of living, Labor will enact an $800 energy bill on top of the federal government's $300 relief, free public transport on Fridays, $500 for trainees & apprentices, free preschool for 3 year olds extends to 2 days per week, and free school camps. For housing, Labor wants to build 30 000 more homes by 2030 as well as removing stamp duty to make housing more affordable; housing will also be densified to deliver more housing choice, as well as building 5000 more social homes. Labor's transport plan primarily of extending the light rail to Woden, as well as buying 110 more battery-electric buses to create new rapid services and to upgrade bus line frequency. As for women, Labor will introduce more women specialised health services, expand free period products, create a new breast cancer clinic as part of the previously mentioned new north side hospital, and give free baby bundles to new parents.

Canberra Liberals: "A fresh opportunity for Canberra"
For cost of living, the Liberals want to introduce a 2.2% cap on rate increases, and want to establish an independent valuer to create transparency for how rates are calculated. They also want to introduce a $65 million package to relieve everyday expenses on Canberrans.' As for community safety, the Liberals want to re-prioritise community safety and will recruit 200 extra police before the next term ends, as well as revising the ACT judicial system to meet 'community expectations.' As for health they want to increase health capacity across the board, deliver more mental health support, and deliver support for those with disabilities. Education-wise, they want better planning of school infrastructure and prioritise improving literacy and numeracy rates of young children. Their housing agenda involves developing Kowen into a new urban centre and district to create 125 000 new homes by 2050, and 2000 new social housing. As for transport, the Liberals will introduce a new timetable, remove long waits, introduce weekly caps and a free city travel zone. As for tourism and leisure, they want to build an entertainment hub, build a city stadium, and convention centre, as well as bringing supercars to the city. To encourage small business, they want to reform payroll tax, remove levies, and cut red tape. For seniors, there will be a 50% funding increase for seniors grants, 50% extra funding for Seniors Expo, and free public transport for them. Also, new veteran and women community related support. They also wish to establish a building quality commissioner.

ACT Greens: "Building a better normal"
For housing the Greens want to build and buy 10 000 new public homes, enact a rent freeze, prevent homelessness, have a 'better deal for renters' by introducing minimum standards for the rental market and planning a connected and affordable city, for example introducing a green belt, increasing density, and establish a territory wide landscape architect. For transport, the greens want more buses, more often, take light rail further, faster (increasing the speed of light rail planning), more electric vehicles, more affordable and free transit, and prioritising streets for people by creating new bike separated lanes. For health, the greens wish to give 160 000 free doctors appointments, create a dedicated centre for neurodivergence, free ambulances, free mental health care, treat drug use as a health issue, create a freestanding birth centre, and give autonomy & choice in end of life care. As for the environment, the greens wish to secure long term funding and set up new government agencies for the conservation for all ecosystems - especially for water ecosystems, and create new recycling facilities to allow more products like soft plastics to be recycled. And for climate goals, the greens wish to fully fund gas-to-electric upgrades, boost electrification efforts, develop a new battery storage facility, plant new street trees (20 000) to help combat with the urban heat island effect and increase funding for the Emergency Services Agency and ACT Parks & Conservation Service.

Independents for Canberra: "It's time for a change"
The Independents for Canberra are new party and are set of independents with shared values, and do not have a 'party-line' to tow, these shared values are to: create a fair society: housing as a right, create the best place to grow up in Australia, support the most vulnerable, and have a criminal justice system that works for all; a healthy Canberra: early intervention, community sport & wellness, safety for women and children, create a city you can move through and bring people together; a flourishing future: a vision that reaches beyond the election cycle, economic diversification, become a test-bed city; and a new kind of politics: lead with principles, access & accountability, and action.

Family First: "worth fighting for"
Family policy involves protecting children, giving freedom for families from LGBTQIA+ ideology and discrimination laws; criminalise prostitution, protect women from exploitation in porn & biological males in sport; keep Australia drug free; encourage marriage & policy that build the 'nuclear family;' give economic freedom for families through cutting red tape for development, pause net zero, persue nuclear, debt reduction, encourage small business, and reducing taxes; centre education curriculum around the basics; and phase out gambling and homelessness. For faith, encourage faith-based schools and protect religious & speech freedoms. As for life policy, ban late term abortions, support women and repeal euthanasia laws.

Animal Justice Party: "A better world for animals, people, planet"
The AJP is mostly a single issue, and for this campaign Animal Justice Party ACT has focused on protecting Australian icons, like koalas and kangaroos, banning live exports, stopping animal poising, declaring a climate emergency, preventing future pandemics through correctly caring for animals, and establish an animal protection policy. As for some social policy, the AJP wishes to retain the right to abortion, family & domestic violence elimination, education about our harm to animals, move away from road transport and provide acess to mental health support.

Democratic Labor Party: "Supporting Families to Build Communities"
To make housing more affordable, the DLP wants to fast track land development, establish co-operatives, give first home buyers discounts, encouraging build to rent schemes. For cost of living, the party wants to introduce power rebates for low-income families and build a new gas power plant, they also wish to cut rates, introduce low income family rent assistance and give stay at home mums an income. As for health they wish to build a new hospital in the north, and establish free dental clinics. To combat crime, they wish to reverse the age of criminal responsibility back down to 10 and build a reform school for repeat youth offenders. The DLP want to 'restore education' and remove identity and climate politics from schools as well as 'welcome to country' from them too. And, improving recreation like repealing helmet laws, and re-legalising smoking in designated areas.

First Nation Party: "Justice. Respect. Representation."
The party wants the ACT government to actually hold a proper truth telling and treaty process, shelter for more Aboriginal community-controlled housing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the ACT, a Caring for Country Framework should be developed, and the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elected body should be scrapped. 

A bolded candidate signalls that they are existing member seeking re-election. Gathered from: https://www.elections.act.gov.au/for-voters/candidates-2024 There will 149 candidates with a vast majority belonging to a grouping or party, only 7 candidates are running ungrouped.

Brindabella

A) Canberra Liberals

• James DANIELS

• Rosa HARBER

• Sandi MITRA

• Deborah MORRIS

• Mark PARTON

B) The ACT Greens

• Sam NUGENT

• Laura NUTTALL

• Troy SWAN

C) First Nation Party

• Wendy BROOKMAN

• Jack McDOUGALL

• Dylan ROBB

D) Family First

• Bruce GARTSHORE

• Merle GRAHAM

E) Animal Justice Party

• Gareth BALLARD

• Robyn SOXSMITH

F) ACT Labor

• Louise CROSSMAN

• Brendan FORDE

• Mick GENTLEMAN

• Caitlin TOUGH

• Taimus WERNER-GIBBINGS

G) Independents for Canberra

• Riley FERNANDES

• Vanessa PICKER

• Elise SEARSON

UNGROUPED

• Emmanuel EZEKIEL-HART - Independent

Ginninderra

A) The ACT Greens

• Jo CLAY

• Dani HUNTER

• Tim LIERSCH

• Adele SINCLAIR

B) Family First

• Sunil BABY

• Elizabeth KIKKERT

• Andrew WALLACE

C) Belco Party

• Angela LOUNT

• Bill STEFANIAK

• Alan TUTT

D) Animal Justice Party

• Carolyne DREW

• Lara DREW

E) ACT Labor

• Tim BAVINTON

• Yvette BERRY

• Tara CHEYNE

• Heidi PROWSE

• Sean SADIMOEN

F) Independents for Canberra

• Leanne FORESTI

• Suzanne NUCIFORA

• Mark RICHARDSON

G) Labour DLP

• Douglas COOPER

• Helen CROWE

• Rick HOWARD

• Maxwell SPENCER

• John VANDERBURGH

H) Canberra Liberals

• Chiaka BARRY

• Peter CAIN

• Joe PREVEDELLO

• Darren ROBERTS

I) Libertarian Party

• Guy JAKEMAN

• Arved VON BRASCH

UNGROUPED

• Mignonne CULLEN - Independent

• Janine HASKINS - Independent

Kurrajong

A) ACT Labor

• Andrew BARR

• Aggi COURT

• Martin GREENWOOD

• Rachel STEPHEN-SMITH

• Marina TALEVSKI

B) Independents for Canberra

• Thomas EMERSON

• Ben JOHNSTON

• Tenzin MAYNE

• Sara POGUET

• Sue READ

C) Family First

• Andrew Charles ADAIR

• Jenny HENTZSCHEL

D) The ACT Greens

• James CRUZ

• Isabel MUDFORD

• Shane RATTENBURY

• Jillian REID

• Rebecca VASSAROTTI

E) Canberra Liberals

• Ramon BOUCKAERT

• Efthimios CALATZIS

• Elizabeth LEE

• Sarah LUSCOMBE

• Patrick PENTONY

F) Animal Justice Party

• Walter KUDRYCZ

• Teresa McTAGGART

G) Labour DLP

• Belinda HALEY

• Boston WHITE

H) First Nation Party

• Rhiannon CONNORS

• Thaddeus CONNORS

• Paul Girrawah HOUSE

• Harrison PIKE

• Jessika SPENCER

I) Strong Independents

• Ann BRAY

• Peter STRONG

UNGROUPED

• Marilena DAMIANO - Independent

Murrumbidgee

A) ACT Labor

• Noor EL-ASADI

• Marisa PATERSON

• Chris STEEL

• Nelson TANG

• Anna WHITTY

B) Independents for Canberra

• Kathleen BOLT

• Anne-Louise DAWES

• Robert KNIGHT

• Paula McGRADY

• Nathan NAICKER

C) Family First

• Andrew COPP

• Andy VERRI

D) Fiona Carrick Independent

• Fiona CARRICK

• Marea FATSEAS

• Bruce PAINE

E) Canberra Liberals

• Ed COCKS

• Jeremy HANSON

• Elyse HESLEHURST

• Amardeep SINGH

• Karen WALSH

F) Animal Justice Party

• Gwenda GRIFFITHS

• Ashleigh GRIFFITHS-SMITH

G) The ACT Greens

• Michael BREWER

• Sam CARTER

• Emma DAVIDSON

• Harini RANGARAJAN

UNGROUPED

• Rima DIAB - Independent

Yerrabi

A) The ACT Greens

• Andrew BRADDOCK

• Soëlily CONSEN-LYNCH

• Alex GIAS

B) Belco Party

• Gregory BURKE

• Jason TAYLOR

C) Labour DLP

• Michael HANNA

• Colin JORY

D) Canberra Liberals

• Leanne CASTLEY

• Ralitsa DIMITROVA

• John MIKITA

• James MILLIGAN

• Krishna NADIMPALLI

E) Family First

• Greg AMOS

• Henry KIVIMAKI

F) First Nation Party

• Lisa BARNES

• Michael DUNCAN

• Kye MOGGRIDGE

• Cooper PIKE

• Tyson POWELL

G) ACT Labor

• Suzanne ORR

• Michael PETTERSSON

• Mallika RAJ

• Ravinder SAHNI

• Pradeep SORNARAJ

H) Independents for Canberra

• Sneha KC

• Vikram KULKARNI

• David POLLARD

• Trent POLLARD

UNGROUPED

• Joanne McKINLEY - Animal Justice Party

• Mohammad Munir HUSSAIN

• Fuxin LI - Independent