Deputy PM says NT needs to save two lower house seats through population growth

AUSTRALIA’S Deputy Prime Minister says Territorians deserve to have enough Federal MPs to go around, and says there needs to be focus on two key things to ensure access to two lower house seats is not questioned

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AUSTRALIA’S Deputy Prime Minister says Territorians deserve to have enough Federal MPs to go around, though the focus should be on growing the economy and population so the NT’s access to two lower house seats is not questioned.

Deputy PM Michael McCormack, who was in Darwin supporting the CLP’s election bid, said that as a regional NSW MP he “fully understood the need to have more representation” so constituents had equitable access wherever they were.

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His comments come exactly two months after Labor introduced a private member’s bill 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 based on population quotas.

If the Australian Electoral Commission’s planned redistribution occurs and Labor’s bill does not 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 of Christmas and Cocos Keeling islands.

Senators Malarndirri McCarthy has the support of Nationals Senators Matt Canavan, Bridget McKenzie and Dr Sam McMahon for her private members’ bill to save NT’s seats.

Mr McCormack said comparatively to the NT his electorate of Riverina, at 48,988sq km, was a “sheep paddock”.

It is expected that the bill will be voted through easily in the Senate due to the support of all five Nationals senators, though supply isn’t guaranteed in the lower house.

Mr McCormack, while emphasising with the NT’s predicament, did not indicate outright which way the Coalition would go once crunch time came.

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“What I’d like to be able to see is the Northern Territory grow its population so that the number of representatives … is never bought into question,” he said.

He noted Tasmanians, who are guaranteed five MPs regardless of population, would have more representation than Territorians as a whole in federal parliament.

The NT’s population, as reported by the NT News in June, fell 0.4 per cent in 2019 and was the only jurisdiction in Australia that recorded negative growth.

A petition to protect the seats, started by Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, had garnered 2860 supporters as of 5pm yesterday.