Our decomposing democracy

The reason for this is that our electorates are bloating, as more and more people are crammed into each constituency. The root cause of this deterioration in our Parliamentary democracy is the limits imposed by section 24 of the Australian Constitution. Worse is to come. Australia’s booming population is estimated to double by 2066.1

Section 24 restricts the number of Members of the House of Representatives to twice the number of seats in the Senate. This is referred to as the nexus and it can only be changed by referendum.

Already the number of constituents in many electorates is more than 150,000. An Australian 40 years ago lived in an electorate of about 70,000 people, sharing the privilege of voting with about 55,000 others. If there is no reform, forty years hence, a citizen will share the electorate with some 300,000 people and would vote for a single representative alongside at least 200,000 fellow constituents.

Already Australians are losing faith in Members of Parliament. According to a Centre for Policy Development paper quoted in The Guardian by Anne Davies in December 2017, two-thirds of people surveyed believed that politicians did not seem to be serving their interests.2

By tying the number of MHRs to their State Senate representation, the colonial administrations aimed to limit the transfer of power from their own bailiwick to the unknowable Federal Government.