ACT Greens pinning hopes on two more Senate seats

The Albanese government is consulting on electoral reforms that include the extra seats, which the Coalition wants to tie to an increase to the size of the House of Representatives.

Canberra mother-of-two Christina Hobbs, a former UN humanitarian advisor and ethical financial services expert, has been preselected to lead the ACT Greens Senate ticket after running for the party in 2016.

"It's clear Canberrans increasingly want representatives who will take bold action on climate and integrity," she said.

Special Minister of State Don Farrell is aiming to have the electoral reforms passed by the end of the year.

Independent senator for Canberra David Pocock said additional ACT seats in the Senate would give Canberrans fairer representation and "strengthen our democracy".

"The territories have had the same number of senators for more than 50 years and the time for change is now," Senator Pocock said.

"In that time, we've seen the states have their Senate representation increased to 12 senators for six years but the territories have been stuck with two senators on three-year terms."

Ms Hobbs said a Senate with four ACT seats would enable Canberrans to have broader representation on the issues that matter to them, including climate and housing.

"As a mother of two young children renting in Canberra, I can relate to many of the challenges of renting families in our city. I feel passionately about the need to address the root cause of the housing crisis."

Joining Christina Hobbs on the ACT Greens Senate ticket will be former teacher, policy advisor and public housing tenant Jordan Rocke.

The Greens campaign will target voters wanting to see action on federal issues with a local impact, including the ACT government's $100 million debt to the Commonwealth which it borrowed for social housing.

"One of the quickest things that the federal government could do for Canberra itself is to forgive our housing debt," Ms Hobbs said.

"This would make an instant impact and allow the ACT government to get on with investing in more social housing."

The ACT government has repeatedly called on the Commonwealth to waive the debt and Chief Minister Andrew Barr has said the territory would invest the savings into social housing.

But the Albanese government declined to include the measure in last month's federal budget.

Canberra senator and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, expected to be preselected as Labor's candidate for the next election at the ACT Labor conference next month, retained her seat in 2022 with her ticket receiving 26.9 per cent of the primary vote (76,909 votes).

Senator Pocock, who blasted former Liberal senator Zed Seselja out of his seat in 2022, will run again with a running mate to be selected later this year.

The Pocock ticket received 44,767 votes in 2022 (15.7 per cent), while the Liberals received 63,962 votes (22.4 per cent) and the Greens 23,781 votes (8.3%).

Ms Hobbs it was "important in our democracy to have many strong candidates putting a foot forward" to advocate on climate and housing, but that the Greens would aim to win back votes lost to Senator Pocock.