Submission by Sitting NT Federal Members and Senators to the Joint

Submission by Sitting NT Federal Members and Senators to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters Inquiry into the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Ensuring Fair Representation of the Northern Territory) Bill 2020

Hon Warren Snowdon, MHR, Member for Lingiari Mr Luke Gosling, MHR, Member for Solomon Senator Dr Sam McMahon Senator Malarndirri McCarthy

SYNOPSIS

This submission seeks to establish the need for the Commonwealth Parliament to pass legislation that guarantees the Northern Territory, including for this purpose the Indian Ocean Territories (IOTs) of Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Islands, a minimum of two seats in the House of Representatives.

It argues that such a guarantee has precedent in the Constitutional guarantee that Tasmania has for a minimum of five seats in the House of Representatives, regardless of population. In doing so the submission highlights, for the purpose of illustration, the current anomalous situation that exists in terms of representation between Tasmania and the NT, and how the unfairness of this situation would worsen if, as determined by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), the Territory were to lose a seat.

The submission provides background information on the history of the two seat issue for the NT. It provides a discussion on the unique nature of the Northern Territory and its diverse population. It highlights the fact that as at the 2016 census 25.5%of the population of the Territory are First Nations people and that they comprised 40.2% of the Lingiari population and 8.5% of the Solomon population. The submission argues that at a time when the nation is seeking to give prominence to the aspirations of

First Nations people, the impact of the decision to revert back to one seat in the Territory would drastically dilute their voice and representation from the NT.

Similarly the submission argues that the reversion to one seat would also dilute the representation and voice of regional and particularly Northern Australia at a time when these voices need to be heard. It would also mean the dilution of the vote from the Indian Ocean Territories (IOT).

INTRODUCTION

We welcome The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM) review into the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Ensuring Fair Representation of the Northern Territory) Bill 2020.

On Thursday 18 June the Australian Bureau of Statistic (ABS) Media Release confirmed that as at 31 December 2019 the population of the Northern Territory was 244,800.

As the JSCEM’s own Media Release1 indicated, ‘Analysis from the Parliamentary Library has projected the possibility of the Northern Territory losing one of its two House of Representatives seats before the next federal election, caused by its population falling below the entitlement quota for the second seat.’ This is now confirmed by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) media release of 3 July that a determination of reduced entitlement for the Northern Territory to one seat only applies immediately for the purposes of enrolment.2

1 Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM) Committee to examine Northern Territory's representation in the House Media Release Issue date: Wednesday, 17 June 2020 2 Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) Media, Determination of Membership of House of Representatives, 3 July 2020

The advice from the Parliamentary Library was that the release of the ABS population figures as at 31 December 2019 the calculation for NT entitlement is as follows:

 The population of the six states is 24,845,330  This is divided by 144 (6 states x 12 senators x 2) to get the quota.  The quota will be 172,537.0139  The population of the Northern Territory and its islands is 247,280 (NT 244,761, Christmas Is = 1,956, Cocos (Keeling) Islands = 563)  NT’s entitlement will be 1.4332  This is rounded to one seat.

Does the provision of adding twice the net undercount3 get the NT to 1.5 quotas?

 No. o Twice the net undercount is 7,440. o Adding this to 247,280 = 254,720 o This is 1.4763 quotas o NT would need an extra 4,086 people to get to the point where the addition of 7,440 (2 x net undercount) would get 1.5000 quotas

Without legislating for a guaranteed two seats, representation in the Territory will always be at the mercy of ABS statistics and the requirements of the Electoral Act.4

BACKGROUND TO THE NORTHERN TERRITORY SECOND SEAT

The Northern Territory first gained a second seat following a redistribution in December 1999, that determined for the 2001 election, the electorate of the Northern Territory be divided into the seats of Solomon (the urban area of Darwin and Palmerston) and Lingiari (the rest of the Northern Territory west to the border of Western Australia, south to South Australia, and east to Queensland, plus the IOT).

3 The net undercount is a post census enumeration survey (PES) which is conducted following the Census. An undercount indicates that the number of persons missed by the Census is greater than the number who were counted more than once. 4 Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, ss. 56, 57. The means of determining the number of Members is laid down in s. 48

Despite a submission at the time to the Electoral Redistribution Committee that the two new seats be aligned either side of the Stuart Highway from North to South, so both seats had all elements of the different communities of interest to be found in the Northern Territory, the Redistribution Committee chose instead to make Solomon an urban seat with an area of around 330 square kilometres, and Lingiari a regional and remote seat, including within it the IOTs with an area of around 1.34 million square Kilometres.

In February 2003 the AEC determined that the Northern Territory was just 295 persons short of the population needed to retain its second House of Representatives seat.

The effect of being 295 people short of the quota would have meant the halving of the Territory representation in the House of Representatives. That led to discussion and debate and a cross Party view with strong community support, including from the then NT Labor Government, that the Northern Territory should be guaranteed a minimum number of two seats in the House of Representatives.

Part of the discussion then centred around the deficiencies in the population data from the Bureau of Statistics and used by the Australian Electoral Commission for its calculations on the distribution of House of Representative Seats. The Howard Government, aware of the contentious nature of the AEC determination, and after discussions with the Labor Opposition, referred the matter to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM) for consideration and reporting.

The (JSCEM) reported and made practical recommendations to deal with the immediate problem and also the problem of making manageable population estimates for the territories into the future.

Firstly, that the statistics provided by the Australian Statistician for the purpose of making a determination were in the future to be the most

4 recent set of statistics in a regular series compiled and published by the Australian Statistician. Hence, the significance of the population data release by the ABS on 18 June 2020, which detailed the population as at 31 December 2019. That data is the most recent set of statistics and was used as the basis for the announcement on Friday 3 July 2020 by the AEC that as a result of these population figures, that the NT would henceforth only entitled to one Seat in the House of Representatives at the next general election.

Secondly, JSCEM proposed that when the Australian Capital Territory or the Northern Territory falls short of a quota for an additional seat and the shortfall is within an error margin, the Electoral Commissioner is to recalculate the entitlement. The error margin times two was to be added to the Territory's population and the entitlement recalculated.

These processes were followed in the redistribution that was announced by the AEC on 3 July, but the final calculation still meant that even under the amended formula the NT is only entitled to one seat in the House of Representatives at the next election.

The population data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and used by the AEC showed that all states and territories, except the Northern Territory, had positive population growth over the year ending 31 December 2019. The population of Australia grew by 1.4% over the period while that of the Northern Territory fell by 0.4%. This fall in population in the NT was largely driven by a substantial fall in interstate migration where there was a net loss of 3,994 people. There was also only a small increase in net overseas migration of 535 people.

The figures highlight the quandary that the NT finds itself in. For example, by using the comparison of the NT against Tasmania, which had at 31 December 2019 a population of 537,000 against that of the NT of 244.800. Tasmania had a population increase over the previous 12

5 months of 5,200, largely as a result of an increase of 2,635 in overseas net migration and 1,438 in net interstate migration. Yet, even though with over twice the NT population, its natural population increase was less than half of that of the NT. Tasmania’s natural population increase was 1,089 while in the NT it was 2,517.

The issue of overseas and interstate migration is one that has bedevilled the NT over decades and is the primary reason why, in terms of estimating seat entitlements through the processes currently required by the Commonwealth Electoral Act, the NT will be at the margins for some time to come. There will be fluctuations which at particular times will mean that the NT will be above the quota required for two seats. For example, projections from the NT Treasury, based on the 2016 Census figures had the NT population growing to 251,727 by June 2021.5

There are also issues with the Estimated Resident Population (ERP) process that impact on the NT.

The number of Federal seats is based on the ERP, which is calculated in a staged process – firstly with the Census night count, then a smaller more detailed survey to work out who was missed in the first step. The third step in the ERP is an estimate of the total population (ERP), made from the count and the survey. This is made for 30 June in the Census Year (i.e. a month before the Census).

The first thing to note is that the final ERP (or official census population number) is in fact an estimate, not a count. The second thing to note is that because the ERP is an estimate (not a count), it has a sampling error and a non-sampling error.

While the sampling error is used to determine the NT seat’s quota, nobody can be sure if the sampling error is sufficient. The law says

5 Northern Territory Government Department of Treasury and Finance, Northern Territory Population Projections Preliminary (2017 Release), April 2019

6 nothing about non-sampling error and assumes it to be zero. Doing some more detailed counts of a number of communities is the only way to get a better estimate of the true population.

CHALLENGES IN SERVICING A SINGLE NT ELECTORATE

The greatest difficulty in serving the electorate of Lingiari is the time it takes to reach the sparsely populated regions contained in the electorate, and then travel within those regions.

A single MP serving 140,000 enrolled voters over the area of the Northern Territory and the Indian Ocean Territories presents many logistical obstacles to serving the sparsely populated communities.

Limited time to be in the Electorate

In 2019 the House of Representatives sat for seventeen weeks. A Darwin or Alice Springs based representative is required to transit through either Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide to and from Canberra. It means that the Member travels on Sunday morning to be in Canberra and returns on Friday afternoon. Apart from the relatively small number of regional and remote Members with similar travel challenges, most other Members based in or near a capital city have the advantage of being able to travel to Canberra later on Sunday or even on Monday morning and be back at their home base on Thursday evening when sittings conclude. Effectively, these Members have seventeen extra days to be in their electorate compared to a Darwin or Alice Springs based Member in the NT and other similarly remote electorates. This accounts for the time that a Member is required to travel for sittings. In addition there is the travel required to undertake Ministerial or other Parliamentary duties such as required for Parliamentary Committee work.

Serving the electorate

Prior to COVID-19, the major commercial flights consisted of two Qantas flights a day both ways between Darwin and Alice Springs seven days a week. Over the summer period after the peak tourist season and Territory school holidays, this service is often reduced to one flight a day.

A ‘milk run’ service also operates three days a week operated by Airnorth flying between Darwin and Alice Springs with stops in Katherine and Tennant Creek.

A Member can also access a charter budget to travel by small charter aircraft to the more remote communities.

The Committee should appreciate that even with access to air travel, a considerable amount of Member’s time is spent in the ‘air’, a good time to read reports and prepare papers, but limited in terms of access to constituents.

For instance, the amount of time spent travelling is challenging. The Indian Ocean Territories has a combined population of 2,500 located on islands 900km apart, 2,700kms from Perth. A local member in an urban seat could spend a day in a suburb of 5,000 visiting the local schools, attend a community meeting or two and set up a stall at the local shopping centre, hold an evening function and next day do the same in another suburb. To do the same in the Indian Ocean Territories requires a total of 10 days. First there is travel from the NT to Perth, an overnight stay in Perth and then on to the islands. Flights between the islands are only twice a week, so a Member spends three to four days on one island before spending three or four on the other island. Then back to Perth, usually arriving about midnight, before a 7am flight next morning back to home base in the electorate. The current Member tries to get to the islands at least twice a year. That means a total of twenty days out of the

8 schedule to do a service that could be done in two or three days in an inner city electorate.

The alternative to air travel is road travel up and down the spine of the Stuart Highway and then branching out reaching across to communities, many only accessible by dirt roads. During the monsoon season, many of these roads become unreliable and there is risk of a Member being delayed by unexpected flood waters. These potential delays must also be planned for and taken into account when allocating time for electorate duties.

Distances and time from Electorate Offices to outlying communities in Lingiari

Alice Springs Electorate Office Examples To Alpurrurrlum/Lake Nash 640km with 545km over dirt road, one fuel stop at the only community (Arlparra) between Alice Springs and Alpurrurrlum. A day’s drive to get there and then a day’s drive to get back.

To Docker River 640km with 219km over dirt road, two fuel stops (Erldunda Road House and Yulara) between Alice Springs and Docker. A day’s drive to get there and then a day’s drive to get back. To Kintore 493km with 338km over dirt road, one fuel stop at the only community (Papunya) between Alice Springs and Kintore. A day’s drive to get there and then a day’s drive to get back.

The alternative is to use the charter budget for a private charter plane to get to the communities. This enables the work in a community to be completed in one day to and from the electorate office.

Katherine Electorate Office Examples Darwin To Numbulwar 783km with 180km over dirt road, 150km of bad dirt road with one fuel stop at Ngukurr and Numbulwar. Approx 9hrs 30 Min No regular flights, Charters

Darwin To Borroloola 972km by road. 10hrs approx Flights from Darwin to MacArthur River Mine via Air North currently not operational (then 50kms onto Borroloola) Charters available

Darwin To Lajamanu 872km with 118km over dirt road, No commercial Flights, Charters available.

Darwin To Gapuwiyak 872km with 445 Dirt Road 1 fuel stop between Katherine and Gapuwiyak 555kms No commercial flights, charters available.

It can be appreciated, that unless untaken by air charter, a visit to a small outlying community for four or five hours work will take three days out of a Member’s schedule.

It is impossible for a Member to visit each community in the NT in a single year. Experience has shown that whilst the Member for Lingiari has been able to visit each community during an election cycle over three years it is only the bigger communities that can expect one or two visits a year.

The Member for Lingiari and the Senators rely on the annual NT Show Circuit in Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Katherine and Darwin to meet with constituents, as many families from communities attend their closest show. COVID-19 this year has led to the cancellation of the Shows, further restricting the Member’s access to constituents. We are presently witnessing a second wave of COVID-19 in Victoria, which serves to remind us the uncertainty of a traditional show circuit returning in 2021 must also be considered.

There are also significant Cultural and Sporting weekends where bush constituents gather in large numbers. Each of these events expect the presence of the Member and the NT Senators. Examples include Freedom Weekend at Kalkaringi, 460km south west of Katherine, Barunga Festival Weekend, 80km south of Katherine, and the GARMA Festival of Traditional Culture in north-east Arnhemland. Again, it must be appreciated that in small area electorates a Member is able to attend fetes, sporting carnival and festivals in their electorate and not spend a day travelling to the event and a day returning to their home base. This is not the case in the NT.

REPRESENTING THE ELECTORATE OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY

Were the Territory to revert back to one seat, then the single member would be entitled to three offices, so there would be a loss of one Federal office in the NT and also a reduction in electoral staff, while the population to be serviced will roughly double. This is not helpful or sensible.

There are currently four electorate offices across the NT. Were the Territory to be represented by a single member there would only be an entitlement to three offices with the result being an overall loss of staff entitlement to service a population of around 245,000.

The redistribution that led to the creation of two seats Solomon and Lingiari, meant that the seat of Solomon was inclusive of Darwin and Palmerston and an area of then 330 square kilometres, and Lingiari was the rest of the NT and the Indian Ocean Territories and was 1.34 million square kilometres.

An alternate proposal for the redistribution which was made at the time and repeated at a subsequent redistribution hearing was, that the NT be split north to south and be divided in half by area and population This would have meant the creation of two electorates which would be demographically and geographically similar, roughly 700,000 square kilometres in size.

The current arrangements with its two seats is very similar to when the two seats were originally established, although following the redistribution in 2017 there were some changes which reduced geographical size of Solomon to 191 square kilometres, so that Lingiari encroached into Palmerston and around the northern suburbs of Darwin. As a result Lingiari picked up around 140 square kilometres to add to the already 1.34 million square kilometres.

The 2017 redistribution made the seat of Solomon smaller both in land area and population to increase the constituent size of the Lingiari electorate. This has already reduced the ‘community of interest’ of Darwin and Palmerston by removing the Palmerston suburbs of Knuckeys Lagoon, Yarrawonga, Johnston, Farrar and Zuccoli from Solomon and into the electorate of Lingiari, and in doing so separated those suburbs from the alignment of the Federal seat of Solomon from the local Palmerston Municipal Area. This was not in the best interests of the constituents in those suburbs.

Obviously the ‘community of interest’ of the capital city of the Northern Territory and arguably the northern capital of Australia, ie Greater

Darwin, will be even further eroded by the move to one Federal seat for the entire Northern Territory. The population will continue to grow in Darwin and Palmerston so the seat of Solomon and Lingiari should both be retained.

As an aside, both the names ‘Lingiari’ and ‘Solomon’ tell important parts of the Northern Territory story. Reducing the representation of the NT to one ‘Member for the Northern Territory’ would be a backward step.

As the Explanatory Memorandum of the Private Members Bill which seeks to guarantee the Northern Territory a minimum of two seats in the House of Representatives argues ‘Legislating for two seats for the Northern Territory would recognise the huge geographical area of the Northern Territory, at over 1.34 million square kilometres and which includes the remote Indian Ocean Territories of Christmas Island and the Cocos Islands. Over 99% of the area of the Northern Territory is in the electorate of Lingiari.’6

COMPARISON WITH OTHER ELECTORATES

The Constitution allows for a minimum of five members at least shall be chosen in each original state7, but leaves Parliament to decide the representation for the Territories,8 as the Parliament may make laws for increasing or diminishing the number of the members of the House of Representatives, and allow the representation of Territories in either House of the Parliament to the extent and on the terms which it thinks fit.9

Tasmania, as an original state in the Constitution, is guaranteed five seats regardless of its population, in the House of Representatives. With a

6 The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, Senate. COMMONWEALTH ELECTORAL AMENDMENT (ENSURING FAIR REPRESENTATION OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY) BILL 2020 Explanatory Memorandum 7 Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, 1900. Chapter I Part III – The House of Representatives s 24 Constitution of House of Representatives. 8 Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, 1900. Chapter I Part III– The House of Representatives s 27 Alteration of number of members. 9 Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, 1900. Chapter VI–New States s 122 Government of territories

13 population of approximately 537,000 in total, each seat has an average of around 107,000 people. By comparison the NT, with no guaranteed representation, has a total population, including the Indian Ocean Territories, of around 247,000 people with two elected members, so with roughly 123,500 people each. To go back to one seat would see the NT, including the Indian Ocean Territories, with an electorate of 247,000 people, 2.3 times the average electorate population size for Tasmania and covering an area 19.6 times the area of the whole of Tasmania. Its area is 68,401 square kilometres while that of the NT, not including the Indian Ocean Territories, is 1.34 million square kilometres.

Of course the obvious disparity in the representation in the Commonwealth Parliament between Tasmania and the NT is even more apparent when Senate representation is included. Tasmania is guaranteed, because of its status as a Foundation State, 12 Senators. The Northern Territory, including the Indian Ocean Territories, has two. So that the total representation of Tasmania in the Parliament is 17 members while for the NT it is currently four and would decrease to three if the Territory loses a seat as a result of the AEC determination.

To put it crudely Tasmania has one member of the Commonwealth Parliament for every 31,500 people and the NT currently has one member for every 62,000 people and would go to one member for every 83,000 people.

This is not an argument for saying that Tasmania should be deprived of its current level of representation, but rather to point out the absurdity of the situation as it relates to the NT. There is no doubt Tasmania deserves all the benefits of being a Foundation state at Federation as reflected in its guarantee of Parliamentary representation. The argument here is that the NT is being disadvantaged by a fluctuating population and the requirements of the Commonwealth Electoral Act. The comparisons made here serve merely to highlight the absurdity and relative injustice of the

14 situation that confronts the NT as compared to the benefits enjoyed by Tasmania.

The Constitution, by guaranteeing a minimum of five seats to Tasmania, provides a maladjustment so that the votes of the 5 Tasmanian seats have greater value than that of electorates in other States and Territories.

Member of the House of Representatives representing an electoral division larger than 350,000km2 have an entitlement to a maximum of 3 electorate offices within your electorate.10

Below is a list of electorates currently qualifying for the three electorate offices, their area,11 the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders identified in those areas in the 2016 Census12, the number of remote polling teams in these electorates in the 2019 election and the number of votes cast.13

Electorate Area sq km ATSI Pop. Mobile teams Votes cast Durack WA 1,629, 858 30,305 7 2,132 Lingiari NT 1,348,158 47,811 21 16,114 Grey SA 908,595 10,403 4 885 O’Connor WA 868, 576 9,198 5 342 Maranoa Qld 729,895 8,898 0 Kennedy Qld 567,377 21,471 0 Parkes NSW 393,413 24,506 0

Two things are clear: the electorate with the highest number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and most remote mobile teams to service that electorate in an election is Lingiari. The 21 remote polling teams in Lingiari were each in the field for at least a week and visiting a total of

10 https://maps.finance.gov.au/guidance/office-accommodation-and-resources/office- accommodation/electorate-offices 11 Parliament of Australia Electorate Profiles 12 2016 Census Quick Stats – Electoral Divisions. abs.gov.au 13 AEC 2019 Election Results by Division

202 polling places. The great majority of these polling places would have near 100% Aboriginal voter turnout.

TERRITORY OVERVIEW

Darwin is the commercial, services and administrative hub for the NT. The public service is concentrated in Darwin. Charles Darwin University, a significant regional university, is centred there and is an important economic driver for the Darwin and Territory economy. Darwin’s airport is the international gateway to the Territory. The Darwin port is a transport, services and export hub. Greater Darwin is the only major settlement between Cairns in the East and Broome in the West, and with several ADF bases, is incredibly important from a strategic perspective.

Regional centres such as Alice Springs, Katherine, Tennant Creek and Nhulunbuy are ancillary in the provision of services but the regions around them produce the wealth generated by the NT economy, from the pastoral, mining and agriculture horticulture and tourism industries.

The Territory has 22,000kms of roads. According to the ABS, only 29% of these roads are sealed. The near total of the 15,620kms of unsealed roads are in the electorate of Lingiari.

The Northern Territory has over 400 aerodromes, ranging from the certified airports at Darwin, Gove and Alice Springs, to numerous Registered aerodromes, Aeroplane landing areas and airstrips servicing remote towns, mines, tourism locations, cattle stations, parks and Aboriginal communities, homelands and outstations.

The NT Pastoral Estate comprises 45% of the Northern Territory's land mass held under 224 pastoral leases.

Approximately 50% of the land in the NT is under Aboriginal inalienable freehold title. There are 72 major Aboriginal Communities in the Northern Territory and other remote areas where small populations of Aboriginal people live on their homelands in outstations. There are about 500

16 homelands/outstations in the Northern Territory with around 10,000 inhabitants.

There are four National Parks managed by Parks Australia, Kakadu, Uluru, Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

Corrections Centres, Darwin, Alice Springs, Barkly Work Camp.

Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap, Larrakeyah Defence Precinct Darwin, HMAS Coonawarra Darwin, RAAF Base Darwin, RAAF Base Tindal (Katherine), Robertson Army Barracks, Bradshaw Field Training Area, other training areas including Mt Bundey and Kangaroo Flats and the Delalmere Air Weapons Range.

Operating Mines - McArthur River Mine. Alcan Gove Mine, Gemco Mine, The Granites Gold Mine, Bootu Creek Manganese Project, SILL80 Roper Project, Cosmo Project, Edna Beryl Mine, Dhupuma Plateau Bauxite Mine, plus numerous NT Government authorised explorative and prospectors sites.

There are five public hospitals in the Northern Territory.

These are: Royal Darwin Hospital, Palmerston Regional Hospital, Alice Springs Hospital, Katherine Hospital, Tennant Creek Hospital and Gove District Hospital.

There are also over 60 NT Government Community Care Centres (Clinics), most located remotely and 25 community controlled Aboriginal health services.

Tourism is vital to the Territory, generating over $2 billion in expenditure last year and supporting 15,000 jobs across some 2,000 tourism businesses.

Indian Ocean Territories

The IOTs are situated in the Indian Ocean. Christmas Island is around 2,600 kilometres to the North West of Perth, with the Cocos Islands

17 around 2,900 kilometres from Perth and south west of Christmas Island. By contrast Christmas Island is only about 495 kilometres from Jakarta.

The IOTs have unique characteristics: they are both non self governing Territories. They have no legislature and they operate under WA law, but have no representation in the WA Parliament. The Commonwealth Minister has responsibility and oversight of all laws applicable to the Territories including ultimately, laws enacted by the WA Parliament that are applicable to the IOTs. State type services are supplied by WA by agreement with and funding from the Commonwealth. As of 1 August 2018, there are 45 arrangements with Agencies of the Government of Western Australia (WA) providing services to the Indian Ocean Territories (IOT).14 Both of the IOTs have local government under the WA local Government Act.

In 201615, nearly two-thirds (63.6%) of households on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands (CKI) reported that a non-English language was spoken at home. 69.6% of people spoke Malay at home and 22.2% of people only spoke English at home. The most common religion on the CKI was Islam (75.0%).

On Christmas Island (CI) in 201616, more than half (50.9%) of households on CI reported that a non-English language was spoken at home. 27.8% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Mandarin (17.2%), Malay (17.2%), Cantonese (3.7%), Min Nan (1.5%) and Tagalog (1.0%). In 2016, the most common responses for religion on CI were Islam (19.4%), Buddhism (18.1%) and Catholic (8.9%).

14 Australian Government. Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications, Service Delivery Arrangements for the Indian Ocean Territories. https://www.regional.gov.au/territories/indian ocean/sda/index.aspx, last updated 16 January 2019 15 Cocos (Keeling) Islands—2016 Census Data Fact Sheet 16Christmas Island – 2016 Census Data Fact Sheet

Apart from local government the only political representation they have is through their Federal Member, currently the Member for Lingiari.

CONCLUSIONS

The Northern Territory Department of Treasury and Finance's projected population statistics predict the Territory's population will reach 251,727 by 2021, taking it over the threshold of eligibility for two seats. If these projections are correct and a redistribution this year results in the loss of a seat, the redistribution would see an outcome which is not reflective of the population at the time of the next election.

Legislating for two seats in the Northern Territory will ensure that all Territorians, including the 27 per cent of the NT's population who are First Nations, will continue to have the representation in Canberra that they deserve.

Although First Nations peoples make up over a quarter of our population, only 68.2 per cent of eligible Indigenous Territorians are enrolled to vote. This compares to an overall enrolment rate in the NT of 84.4 per cent and a national enrolment rate of 96.3 per cent.17 Although the enrolment rate has been steadily improving, this is quite clearly an unacceptable gap. We need to maximise the opportunity for Indigenous Australians to be represented and to fully participate in our democracy.

At a time when we should be heeding the call for First Nations people to have a stronger, louder, more influential voice in our democratic processes, reducing the NT's representation in the House will only set the Territory back further.

A single seat in the House of Representatives would mean one Member of Parliament representing almost 245,000 Territorians.

17 Northern Territory Electoral Commission (NTEC) Commissioner Iain Loganathan, reported by Tom Maddocks ABC Radio and TV interview 17 December 2018

A single electorate for the Northern Territory would not recognise the Territory's unique demography, particularly its 30.3% Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous population. At the 2016 Census 41.7% of the electorate of Lingiari identified as either Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander compared with 8.5% in the Solomon electorate.