’Patently unfair’ for NT to lose half of federal seats Senator says, as bill introduced into upper house

IT would be ‘patently unfair’ for the Northern Territory to have just one Federal MP considering it is 20 times larger than Tasmania, a Nationals senator has said

Senators Malarndirri McCarthy, Matt Canavan, Bridget McKenzie and Dr Sam McMahon

IT would be “patently unfair” for the Northern Territory to have just one Federal MP considering it is 20 times larger than Tasmania, a Nationals senator has said.

In an extremely rare move, all five Nationals senators have backed Labor’s push to ensure the NT doesn’t lose one of its two lower house seats as they come under threat from a planned electoral commission redistribution.

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Lingiari MP Warren Snowdon, and Solomon MP Luke Gosling.

If the Australian Electoral Commission’s planned redistribution comes to pass, the NT could end up being the nation’s single largest federal seat, spanning 1.4 million sqkm and taking in two faraway islands, unless changes instigated by Federal Labor are enshrined into law.

Labor’s bill was introduced into the upper house yesterday evening, after a motion was passed on Wednesday with support from the Nationals.

Former Northern Australia minister Matt Canavan, shedding light on why the Nationals in the Senate backed the move, said Tasmania would have five times more MPs than the NT if Solomon or Lingiari were lost.

“That’s patently unfair and our national parliament should seek to represent our national make-up,” he said.

“It wouldn’t meet that if the NT went back to one (seat).”

Senator Malarndirri McCarthy said it was “great to have the Nationals on board” to support democracy in the NT.

“Now that the bill has been introduced and tabled, I look forward to discussions with the crossbench and the Greens in the Senate,” she said.

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The issue of NT losing a seat is brought on by dwindling population. At the 2019 election, Lingiari and Solomon had a combined 139,326 registered voters. In comparison, an average Federal seat is meant to have about 111,000 voters.

Geographically, NT is the third-largest jurisdiction and is about 20 times larger than Tasmania. Tasmania, because it’s a state and not a territory, is afforded five Federal MPs and a full suite of 12 senators despite having a population twice that of the NT.