26 April 2023
PDF version [520 KB]
Dr Damon
Muller
Politics and Public Administration
The Terms
of Reference for the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters’ inquiry
into the 2022 federal election includes:
(g) proportional representation of the states and territories
in the Parliament, in the context of the democratic principle of 'one vote, one
value'.
The primary way in which the representation of the states
and territories in the parliament can be changed is through increasing the size
of the Parliament. It is within the powers of the Parliament to increase the
size of the parliament but doing so is not without complications. The topic of
increasing the size of the parliament has recently attracted media
attention.
The process of changing the size of
the Parliament
The Australian
Constitution provides that the Commonwealth Parliament can determine
the size of the Parliament, subject to a number of restrictions.
The size of the Parliament is determined through what is
known as the ‘nexus provision’, in section 24 of the Constitution. This provides
that the number of members of the House of Representatives must be ‘as nearly
as practicable, twice the number of the senators’, and that the number of
members in each state should be proportional to the population of the state. That
section also requires that no original state shall have fewer than 5 members.
Section 7 of the Constitution provides that the
Parliament can determine the number of senators, but that ‘equal representation
of the several Original States shall be maintained and that no Original State
shall have less than six senators’.
In effect then, to increase the size of Parliament the Parliament
must exercise its powers under the Constitution and pass legislation to increase
the number of senators for each of the states. This then leads to a change in
the number of members of the House of Representatives through a process
described in the next section.
The size of the Parliament has
been changed by increasing the size of the state representation in the
Senate, from the original six senators per state, twice since Federation:[1]
-
In 1949 the number of senators per state was increased from the
original 6 to 10, following the passage of the Representation
Act 1948, increasing the size of the Parliament from 74 to 121.
-
In 1984 the number of senators per state was increased from 10 to
the current 12, following the passage of the Representation Act
1983, leading to its current size of 151.
- The size of the Parliament has not changed substantially
since 1984, despite Australia’s population growing from around
16 million to over
26 million in that time.
The size of the Senate and the
House
The size increase of the House is not required to be exact
(it is to be ‘as nearly as practicable’) because the number of senators is used
in an equation to determine how many seats each state is entitled to (see the Library’s
paper on redistributions) and section 24 of the Constitution
provides each original state a minimum of 5 seats. With the current 12
senators per state, the House would ideally currently have 148 seats (once you
factor in the minimum of five seats for Tasmania and a minimum of one senator
per territory, as required under the Commonwealth
Electoral Act 1918), though the total has varied between 148 and the
current 151, including 4 territory seats.
The Constitution does not require that each state
have an even number of senators, however when it has been changed in the past
it has been by even numbers. For simplicity this Quick Guide will assume that
any subsequent change will also increase the senators of each state by an even
number (to maintain equal numbers of senators to be elected at each half-Senate
election), of 2 senators per state.
If the Parliament was to increase the number of senators
per state by 2 (2 for each of the 6 states, times 2), roughly 24 new members
will be added to the House of Representatives. On the basis of the current
population numbers, having each state elect 14 senators (an increase of 2 per
state), the House of Representatives would have 174 members, an increase of 23
(see Table 1 of the Appendix).
Territory representation
The senators for the territories are not included under
the above provisions; section 122 of the Constitution provides that the
Parliament can determine the representation of the territories in each of the
Houses. The Parliament can change the number of senators the territory is
entitled to, by legislation, without otherwise affecting the size of the
Parliament. The number of senators for each of the territories is provided for
by the Commonwealth
Electoral Act 1918 and is not affected by the Representation Acts.
The number of state senators does not affect the number of
territory senators, but does affect the number of members each territory is
entitled to (because the entitlement of the territories to members is based on
the same calculation as the states). And while within each state and territory
each electorate has to have about the same number of electors, the
number of electorates each state and territory is entitled to is determined by
their whole population, relative to the Australian population.
The consequences of changing the
size of the Parliament
There are electoral, representational and practical
consequences to changing the size of the Parliament.
Elections
Any proposed Representation Act must provide for
how the increase in the size of the Senate should be effected by a single
election, as required under section 14 of the Constitution. While the
exact details are a matter for the Parliament of the day, the precedent of the 2
prior increases suggests that if each state was granted 2 more senators the
next Senate election would elect 8 senators per state, one of which would be
given a short term (likely the last senator elected for each state). Subsequent
half-Senate elections would elect 7 senators per state, each for a 6-year term.
Changing the number of senators elected will likely change
the electoral dynamics of the Senate election. The quota for election at a Senate
election is based on one more than the number of senators to be elected,
divided by the number of votes. The more senators that are up for election, the
lower the vote they need to achieve a quota.
Any increase would trigger a redistribution of electorates
in every state except Tasmania (which, due to its small population would not
gain a seat but as an original state retain its constitutional minimum of five
House of Representatives seats, unless the increase in the size of the Senate
was particularly large, as discussed below). Each of these state
redistributions would have to be completed prior to the next House of
Representatives election. Such a large change would leave very few federal electoral
boundaries unaltered.
Representation
As the population of Australia has increased the number of
electors represented by each member and senator has also increased, and the periodic
changes to the size of the parliament have not kept pace:
- At Federation the average number of electors represented by each
member was around 12,000.
-
In 1949 the average was around 40,000 electors per seat
-
In 1984 it was around 67,000 electors per seat.
Under a minimally expanded parliament, each of the 174 seats
would represent around 103,000 electors, compared to the current average of around
119,000 (as of December 2022) electors per division (see Table 2 in the Appendix
for details).
Practical
The Chamber of the House of Representatives is designed to
seat
up to 172 members, so with 174 members seating might be cosy without
modifications (total
capacity 240 members). Any further expansion of the Parliament might lead
to a situation such as the British House of Commons, which can physically
accommodate a maximum
of 427 of the 650 members.
Each Member and Senator has an office suite in Parliament
House. With 151 Members and 76 Senators, the building is essentially
at capacity. Relatively major changes would need to be made to the building
to accommodate additional members and senators.
While the specifics of these possible physical changes to
Parliament House are outside the scope of this Quick Guide, possible changes
might involve moving some services out of the building, such as the corporate
functions of the Parliamentary Departments, the Parliamentary Library, and the
Press Gallery.[2]
Members and Senators cannot realistically be accommodated outside Parliament
House as they must be able to reach the respective Chamber within around 4
minutes when a division is called (though this is defined under the
Standing Orders, and could be changed). Any substantial changes to the building
will require accommodation of heritage and design integrity considerations.
Also outside the scope of this Quick Guide, but worth
noting, is the effect of the size of the Parliament on the ability of the Parliament
to undertake its functions. Increasing the size of the chambers will impact
speaking opportunities in the chambers and lead to more parliamentarians being
available to participate in committee activity. It might also lead to
reconsidering the size of the ministry, which is currently limited by
legislation to 30 members, with an additional 12 Parliamentary Secretaries
or Assistant Ministers.
Proportionality and the size of the
Parliament
An additional concern is the difference in the ratio of
parliamentarians to electors (or residents more generally) and how it differs
between states and territories, plus between the Chambers of Parliament. In
general, a small change in the number of Senators will effectively not fix the
discrepancies between the states.
In the case of the Senate, this is largely an unsolvable
problem. Each of the original states has a constitutional guarantee to the same
number of senators, whether its
population is 8.1 million (NSW) or 571,000 (Tasmania). Increasing the size
of the Senate is never going to meaningfully close this gap.
For the House of Representatives, the situation is more
complex, but again driven mostly by the smaller populated state of Tasmania and
the territories. Using the 2022 population numbers Tasmania would not become
entitled to its 5 House seats on the basis of population until each state has
18 senators (meaning the House will have 224 Members). Under this scenario each
state and territory will have around 80,000 electors per member (see Table 2 in
the Appendix for the calculations). Until that point, however, Tasmania and the
NT will be well under the average national enrolment and the ACT will generally
be over the average.
Conclusion
It is not difficult to argue that the size of the Parliament
has failed to keep up with both increases in the size of the population and
increases in the complexity of governing. The process of increasing the size of
the Parliament is legislatively straightforward and has successfully been done
twice in the past, though the most recent time was so long ago there are likely
to be few people still in politics who remember it. The political and practical
consequences are significant, however, and also slightly difficult to predict.
It is likely that, should the JSCEM recommend the Parliament again be extended,
the resulting debate will no doubt be robust.
Appendix
Using the formula provided for in section 65 of the Electoral
Act it is possible to project the likely size of the House of
Representatives based on the increased Senate size. The ABS population
estimates from September 2022 (the most recent at the time of publication) were
applied to determine the seat entitlement for each state.
Table 1: Number of Members of the House of
Representatives per state and territory based on number of senators
|
Number of Members |
Senators per state |
NSW |
Vic |
QLD |
SA |
WA |
Tas |
NT |
ACT |
Total size of the
House |
12 |
46 |
38 |
30 |
10 |
16 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
150 |
14 |
54 |
44 |
35 |
12 |
19 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
174 |
16 |
62 |
50 |
40 |
14 |
21 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
197 |
18 |
70 |
57 |
46 |
16 |
24 |
5 |
2 |
4 |
224 |
On the basis of the calculated numbers of divisions, using
the AEC
estimates of eligible electors for each state and territory, gives the
following average enrolments under the new House and Senate sizes.[3]
Table 2: Average number of electors per electorate in
each state and territory based on the number of senators
|
|
Average number of
electors per electorate |
Senators per state |
Total Electorates |
NSW |
Vic |
QLD |
SA |
WA |
Tas |
NT |
ACT |
National average |
12 |
150 |
121,690 |
118,045 |
123,238 |
131,046 |
118,131 |
83,273 |
83,011 |
107,013 |
119,231 |
14 |
174 |
103,662 |
101,948 |
105,633 |
109,205 |
99,479 |
83,273 |
83,011 |
107,013 |
102,785 |
16 |
197 |
90,286 |
89,714 |
92,429 |
93,604 |
90,005 |
83,273 |
83,011 |
107,013 |
90,785 |
18 |
224 |
79,968 |
78,697 |
80,373 |
81,904 |
78,754 |
83,273 |
83,011 |
80,260 |
79,842 |
Electors |
|
5,597,733 |
4,485,719 |
3,697,150 |
1,310,461 |
1,890,096 |
416,366 |
166,022 |
321,039 |
17,884,586 |
[1].
In 1974 the Parliament legislated to give
each of the territories two senators, whose terms were matched to the terms
of members of the House of Representatives.
[2].
Some of the staff of the Department of Parliamentary Services are already
located elsewhere in Canberra.
[3].
Estimates of electors is used rather than total enrolments to put an upper
limit on the numbers; redistributions are based on actual enrolments, but
enrolment rates can change over time.
For copyright reasons some linked items are only available to members of Parliament.
© Commonwealth of Australia
Creative Commons
With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms, and to the extent that copyright subsists in a third party, this publication, its logo and front page design are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia licence.
In essence, you are free to copy and communicate this work in its current form for all non-commercial purposes, as long as you attribute the work to the author and abide by the other licence terms. The work cannot be adapted or modified in any way. Content from this publication should be attributed in the following way: Author(s), Title of publication, Series Name and No, Publisher, Date.
To the extent that copyright subsists in third party quotes it remains with the original owner and permission may be required to reuse the material.
Inquiries regarding the licence and any use of the publication are welcome to webmanager@aph.gov.au.
This work has been prepared to support the work of the Australian Parliament using information available at the time of production. The views expressed do not reflect an official position of the Parliamentary Library, nor do they constitute professional legal opinion.
Any concerns or complaints should be directed to the Parliamentary Librarian. Parliamentary Library staff are available to discuss the contents of publications with Senators and Members and their staff. To access this service, clients may contact the author or the Library‘s Central Entry Point for referral.