Supersize the House: MPs back plans for more MPs

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The federal parliament should be significantly expanded by up to 49 extra MPs to ensure the electoral system delivers “one vote, one value” for every Australian, according to a new committee report on electoral reform.

And Australia’s two mainland territories should each have twice the number of senators in federal parliament, under changes proposed in the joint standing committee on electoral matters’ report into the 2022 election.

Special Minister of State Don Farrell.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

It also backs slashing to $1000 the threshold at which political donations are made public, up from the current level of $16,300. Donation details would be made in real time rather than more than a year after an election.

The committee received a range of submissions that argued for the number of seats in the lower house to be increased from 151 to either 175 or 200, while senate seats for states would rise to as many as 16, up from 12.

Any change to the size of the House would not occur until after the next election and would be subject to a separate inquiry.

Shifting to 200 MPs would restore the principle of one vote, one value and ensure that every Australian is represented, on a per capita basis, by an equal number of MPs in the House of Representatives, but it would also represent the most significant redrawing of the electoral map since 1984, when Bob Hawke expanded the House from 125 to 148 seats.

The committee did not make a recommendation about what the size of the House should grow to, but simply states “increasing the size of the House of Representatives to reduce malapportionment and improve the ratio of electors to MPs”.

If the parliament grew to 200 seats, NSW would be the biggest winner with its seat count rising from 47 seats to 63 seats; Victoria would grow from 39 to 51 and Queensland would gain 10 seats to reach 40. South Australia and Western Australia would gain five each, to 15 and 20 respectively while Tasmania, by far the least populous state, would gain none and remain on five.

At present, there is one lower house MP for every 80,000 voters in Tasmania, but other states lag far behind. For example, there is currently one MP for every 116,000 NSW voters, one MP for every 111,000 Victorian voters and most glaringly, one MP for every 127,000 South Australian voters.

The committee’s final report outlines proposed changes that are in addition to reforms detailed in a June interim document that called for political donation disclosure thresholds to drop to $1000 from $16,300, caps on donations and on how much money can be spent in a particular electorate, and controversial truth-in-political-advertising laws.

Taken together, they could reshape how elections are conducted in Australia by reducing the influence of money.

Other proposals include on-the-day enrolment for federal elections and referendums, an expansion of telephone voting, making it easier to vote overseas and axing media-blackout laws that apply in the final days of an election – provided truth in advertising laws are enacted.

The federal government will have to formally respond to the report and decide whether to adopt some or all of the recommendations.

The increase in the number of seats for the territories could hand progressive parties a slight advantage in the Senate.

Psephologist Kevin Bonham said an increase in the size of House would, depending on how the new boundaries were drawn, increase the number of Greens and independents elected.

In the Senate, the ACT would likely end up with three progressives and one conservative senator, while in the Northern Territory, the Greens would be hopeful of capturing an extra spot.

Bonham said there was a strong case to increase the number of MPs in the House.

“It would end the malapportionment in Tasmania and the Northern Territory especially. It would also reduce the number of electors in each seat to a more manageable level,” he said.

The report does not recommend when the increase in senators should take place, leaving it as a matter for Special Minister of State Don Farrell to decide.

Comment has been sought from Farrell.

At present, the NT has two senators for almost 150,000 voters and the ACT has two senators for 315,000 voters. Tasmania has 12 senators for 402,000 voters because it is a state.

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