Federal parliamentary committee recommends increasing number of ACT and Northern Territory senators from two to four

The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters recommends increasing the number of Senate seats for the ACT and the NT. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)

A federal parliamentary committee has recommended doubling the number of Senate seats for the ACT and the Northern Territory, from two to four each.

The recommendation, made by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM) as part of its inquiry into the 2022 federal election, is intended to address population changes and underscore the need for representation of the territories.

Adding extra territory senators would not require a constitutional change — the government would just need to pass the proposal through the lower house, and then the Senate.

Unlike their state counterparts, territory senators currently serve three-year terms, the same as members of the House of Representatives.

And because there are just two of them in each territory, the quota required to win a spot is high – and it has meant the outcome of most territory Senate elections has been predictable.

Until the 2022 election saw independent senator David Pocock elected, every election in the ACT and Northern Territory had produced the same pairing since 1975; one Labor senator and one Liberal senator in each jurisdiction.

ACT government, independent ACT senator support recommendation

In the ACT government’s submissions to the inquiry, it argued the increase in the populations of the territories since being granted Senate representation in 1974 warranted an increase in representation.

It pointed to Tasmania, which has five members of the House of Representatives (MPs) and 12 senators, meaning it has 17 federal representatives in total for a population of about 558,000 people.

In comparison, the ACT has five federal representatives in total for more than 450,000 residents.

“The state of Tasmania is represented … at approximately 7.5 per cent of overall representation of the parliament, compared to the ACT’s … approximately 2.2 per cent of the overall representation of the parliament,” the ACT government said in submissions to the inquiry.

“Tasmania, as a consequence, has 3.4 times the representation in the federal parliament than that of the ACT, despite having a population which is only 1.2 times larger than that of the ACT.”

Senator Pocock has also thrown his support behind the recommendation.

“You might say it’s a hard sell, saying ‘oh, we need more politicians’,” he said.

“But I would argue for people who live in the ACT and NT, we’re being dudded because we don’t have people standing up for us here in in Canberra, making the case on a range of issues that that uniquely affect these two territories.”

In a statement, Special Minister of State Don Farrell thanked the standing committee for their “detailed work” on both the interim report and the newly released final report.

“The government will consider all recommendations of both reports closely, and respond in due course,” he said.

“What is clear from the work of the committee is that we need to protect our democracy against the influence of billionaires, who often use their money to spread and sponsor misinformation.”

‘Canberra needs more common sense, not more Senators’

The Liberal Party of Australia has opposed the idea of an increase, pointing out the ACT currently has more senators per capita than three states, and the NT has more senators per capita than five states.

“Were NSW to have the same number of senators per capita as the ACT currently has, the number of senators from NSW would need to rise to 24,” inquiry submissions from the Liberal Party said.

The Coalition has also hit out against the recommendation, saying any changes made to Australia’s electoral system should improve the country’s democracy for the benefit of all Australians, and not partisan interests.

Queensland Liberal Senator James McGrath said more Senators in Canberra was the last thing Australians needed.

“Canberra needs more common sense, not more Senators,” he said in a statement.

“This is one of the so-called ‘recommendations’ that has come out of the Labor-dominated JSCEM, which has clearly provided these proposals in the hope of making it easier to keep themselves elected.

“Labor’s obsession with being woke is on full display with their so-called truth in political advertising regime, which would see unelected bureaucrats decide what can and cannot be said”.