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The Greens' Shane Rattenbury has a plan to shake up debates in the Assembly, allowing members of the public to nominate topics for the politicians to debate. At the moment, "matters of public importance", debated on Tuesdays and Thursdays, are nominated by the politicians, and Mr Rattenbury says they don't always reflect the issues of interest to the community. He put a plan to an Assembly committee on Thursday to allow members of the public to put forward topics, forcing them into the political chamber for debate. "The topics for debate can often become limited in their nature and, while they are important topics, they perhaps do not cover the breadth of issues that the community might wish us to debate," he said. "I see this as a greater opportunity for community involvement in the Assembly and for issues to come up that members might not think to debate. It could produce a situation where members have to go and research an issue they have thought very little about and that could be a very positive thing. It would be a pioneering move for the ACT, with no other parliaments using such a system and would be "entirely consistent with our reputation as an innovative parliament", he said, proposing a 12 month trial. He suggests the public would be invited to submit issues for debate by 11am on Tuesday during each sitting week. From the topics submitted, the administration and procedure committee would choose one to be debated in the following Thursday's matters-of-public-importance slot. The way it works currently, each of the 11 non-ministerial members of the Assembly submits a topic each sitting week. In practice that meant the eight Liberals all submit the same topic and the three Labor backbenchers likewise, Mr Rattenbury said. The Speaker picked one out of a hat, determining which came forward for debate. Each topic gets 45 minutes of debate. Eight "matters of public importance" have been debated so far this year, five from Labor and three from the Liberals. Labor's Mary Porter has led debate on "the importance of urban renewal to the cultural, economic and social identity of our city", "the importance of growing the higher education sector in the ACT" and "the importance of renewal of early childhood education in the ACT". Meegan Fitzharris (Labor) led debate on "the importance of investor confidence in the ACT". And Chris Bourke (Labor) raised "the importance of having a one stop regulatory approvals process in the ACT". The Liberals have raised matters of public importance on "the importance of genuine urban renewal in the ACT" (Nicole Lawder), "the impact of ACT Government decisions on household budgets" (Alistair Coe), and "the importance of public consultation" (also Mr Coe). Mr Rattenbury has asked the Assembly's administration and procedure committee to consider his idea.

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