What are we to do about the representation of the ACT and the Northern Territory in the Commonwealth Parliament?

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The two territories present different problems. The ACT will soon surpass Tasmania's population and already has a larger GDP, while the Northern Territory is unlikely to approach Tasmania's population any time soon.

The ACT's rapidly growing population of 486,000 is forecast to reach 800,000 in 2065. This means that it will soon overtake the population of Tasmania, which in round figures has a population of 576,000 today.

But, whereas Tasmania has five House of Representative seats and 12 senators the ACT has three members of the House and two senators. This does not seem fair.

Why should Tasmanians get two more House seats and six times the Senate representation of the ACT with nearly the same population?

Adding the population of Queanbeyan and its surrounding council area to the ACT would increase the ACT's population by approximately 68,000, bringing the ACT total very close to that of Tasmania - 576,000 compared to the new ACT total of 554,000.

Queanbeyan and its surrounding local government area are socially, economically, and functionally closely related to the ACT. It makes sense to link the two, since they are so close.

At the same time incorporating Queanbeyan into the ACT more than doubles the size of the latter and brings to the ACT a greater exposure to rural Australia.

That can only be good for the social, economic and political development of........

© Canberra Times