A new parliamentary report has suggested the need for more MPs in Parliament due to a growing demand for representation as the population increases.
The committee for the Inquiry into the 2022 Federal Election has, in its findings, recommended an increase in the size of both houses of Parliament to reduce malapportionment and improve the ratio of electors to MPs.
Malapportionment is the overrepresentation of certain electorates in Parliament as a result of these ratios.
For example, if an electorate with 100,000 residents has one member and another has 10,000 residents with one member, then the latter has 10 times the proportional representation in Parliament.
The inquiry’s submissions recommend an increase to the lower house and also upping representation for the territories in the Senate, from two to four senators each.
Under current laws, 12 senators represent each Australian state whilst 2 senators represent each territory, comprising a total of 76 senators.
The inquiry was commissioned by Special Minister for State Don Farrell in August 2022 to report on all aspects of the conduct of the federal election that year.
The inquiry is standard practice and commissioned after every federal election.
The final report included 21 recommendations in total, one other notable one was to exempt charities from political donation caps and the introduction of on-the-day enrolment for federal elections and referendums.
What is the Cube Root Law?
Ben Raue, analyst and editor of The Tally Room—an electoral analysis website—believes there would be a number of benefits realised by increasing the size of Parliament.“The size of the parliament has an effect on the political diversity you get. Generally, bigger parliaments mean a broader range of parties get elected,” Mr. Raue told the Epoch Times.
Mr. Raue also said Australia’s Parliament must substantially increase to adhere to the cube root law—the idea that the number of members in a lower house of parliament must reflect the cube root of a nation’s population.
“When you look at that metric, Australia would have close to 300 members and when you compare us to Canada, Canada has around 300 members in their lower house, the UK has over 600. When you compare us to similar Western nations, we simply just don’t have as much representation,” he said.
“What does that mean practically for voters? It means it’s harder to reach politicians, they’re less accessible. It means it’s harder to break through in terms of making an impact on politics.”
The cube root law dictates an Australian House of Representatives totalling 294 members instead of 151.
According to an index compiled by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Australia currently ranks 6th out of 36 nations for the number of people per parliamentary representative (MP).
The size of parliament has only ever significantly changed twice in Australian history. In 1949 after the election of the Menzies Liberal government, the House of Representatives increased from 75 seats to 123 seats, and the number of senators in each state from 6 to 10.
In 1984, under the Hawke government, the House increased its membership from 125 to 148 whilst the number of senators for each state jumped from 10 to 12.
Population Has Grown Nearly 65 Percent Since Last Increase
The debate around increasing the size of Parliament has gained momentum in recent years.For example, the Northern Territory is catching up to Tasmania population-wise, with only approximately 300,000 fewer people. Despite this, Tasmania like other states has 12 senators whilst the Northern Territory like every territory has just 2.
In terms of representation per person, there are also substantial discrepancies between suburban electorates.
The NSW electorate of Macarthur has 133,501 enrolled voters, whilst the Northern Territory seat of Solomon has just 71,888, granting the latter considerably more parliamentary influence on a per capita basis.
There is also the fact that Australia’s population has increased 64.8 percent since the size of the Parliament was last increased in 1984.
“I think you could easily make a case that even 16 or 18 senators per state would make sense considering the size of the population as well as the complexity and diversity of the Australian community”, Mr. Raue said.
The Australian Constitution contains a number of stipulations for increasing the size of Parliament.
It does not specify the size of Parliament itself and instead creates rules on the relationship between the size of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The Parliament determines the number of senators allocated to each state, and this count of senators, excluding those representing territories, establishes the House quota. The House quota is established to ensure that the number of House members from the states is approximately double the number of state senators.
