Territory vulnerability sways need for two more ACT senators

The final report of the 15-month inquiry into the 2022 federal election by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters has recommended the ACT and Northern Territory get an extra two senators each, while also pushing for an inquiry into possibly increasing the number of House seats to 200.

The recommendation for the territories, which address four decades of significant population changes and the commonwealth ability to override territory laws, is one of 21 new recommendations which add to 15 largely covering donation and political advertising reform released in the interim report in June.

Committee chair, Labor MP Kate Thwaites, said there is a "drift from democracy" in Australia and the chance for reform to improve transparency and public trust has now been presented.

"Proposing changes to electoral laws is something many people in this place feel strongly about," she told Parliament.

"It is tempting for all of us to retreat to our bunkers about how reforms might affect us and, once again put change in the too-hard basket.

"But all of us in this parliament need our community to have trust in us, in our elections and in democratic systems to allow us to do the work that we are sent here to do."

The ACT and the Northern Territory currently have two Senate seats each, and this recommendation would bring it to four each. There was no recommendation to change the current three-year terms for territory senators.

It will now be up to the Albanese government to determine if there will be a move to enact electoral reform by legislative change before the next election due by May 2025 at the latest.

The final report recommends the Albanese government consider inquiring into increasing the size of the House of Representatives to reduce malapportionment and improve the ratio of electors to MPs so every state and territory could have the number of MPs "which its population entitles it to".

It said a "significant" increase to "something like 200 MPs" may be needed, but a separate inquiry should be held.

The principle of "one vote, one value" applies to the House, and the Senate is a states house and house of review whose composition differs from the lower house through different voting methods.

"It's clear both are very different from what they were when the representation for the original states was put into our constitution at federation and they are still different from when they were granted territory representation in 1973," she said.

The committee also specifically pointed to the issue of territory rights.

"The Federal Parliament's ability to over-rule territory legislation further highlights the need for the two territories to be appropriately represented in the Parliament," the final report stated.

The Liberal Party opposed the increase, saying the ACT currently has more senators per capita than three states. It said the number of senators from NSW would need to rise to 24 if that state were to have the same number of senators per capita.

The Coalition also said, in a dissenting report, that the government had no mandate to increase the size of the Parliament and it should not happen in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.

"Canberra needs more common sense, not more senators," said the Committee's deputy chair, LNP senator James McGrath 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."

Independent ACT senator David Pocock welcomed the call to move to four ACT senators, but would like a formula for increasing territory representation legislated so the fate of the states and territories are tied together and "we don't have to keep having this debate".

Such a doubling of seats to four would reduce the quota for election to 25 per cent, something he regards as "really strange" for the Coalition to oppose given it does not have a Senate representative in the ACT.

With four available seats and with the assumption that Senator Gallagher and Senator Pocock would run again, it is likely that Labor, Liberal and the independent would take three of the seats with Labor and the Greens fighting it out for the fourth.

"By having four, you ensure that there is a Liberal representative in here," Senator Pocock told reporters in Canberra. "Obviously, I'd love to see more independents who aren't tied to the party line that has forgotten Canberra for a long time. With them not supporting it, this is our offer as a crossbench to the government."

"You say you want consensus? Well you can get that in both houses with the crossbench. That's how democracy works."

The Greens are warning the government not to enter into a "dirty deal" with the Liberals that "locks in the two-party system."

"The Greens and independents stand ready to pass real democratic reforms with the government," Senator Larissa Waters said.

Senator Pocock said the government's timeline for change is unclear.

"Now, we've questioned them in the past and they've just pointed to this [inquiry]. So I'm sure they'll now point to the response, but at some point they're going to have to give us a timeline on legislation. I think this is urgent," he said.

It comes after the last Liberal senator for the ACT, Zed Seselja, lost the preselection battle on Sunday for a casual Senate vacancy in NSW. Mr Seselja lost his seat in the May 2022 election to Senator Pocock.