Albanese and Taylor finally agree. Self-interest comes before national interest

March 31, 2026 — 4:40pm

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Save this article for later

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.

Anthony Albanese has put political self-interest ahead of the national interest by shutting down a worthy conversation on adding MPs to a parliament that is too small to effectively serve the country.

And his counterpart Angus Taylor, who pushed Albanese into the short-sighted move, has helped kill off a change that gave him a rare chance to inject some energy into the decaying Liberal Party.

If you want an insight into the farcical nature of decision-making in Canberra, witness Tuesday’s debate over the push to add about 40 MPs to the parliament.

A reminder: the number of MPs in parliament has remained unchanged since Bob Hawke’s time. Australian MPs represent some of the most populous electorates in the world. The average lower house member now represents more than 177,000 people compared to 105,000 when Hawke made changes.

Labor dealmaker-in-chief Don Farrell has been building up a case for adding dozens of new MPs, doing so as recently as........

© WA Today