Sam McMahon (NT, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this historic and important piece of legislation, the Electoral Amendment (Territory Representation) Bill 2020. It's historic and important not just to the Northern Territory—although that is obviously where my passion lies—but also to the ACT, because this bill includes not just the Northern Territory but our other territory, right here around our nation's capital.

So why is this important to Territorians? Around the rest of Australia, if you suggested to a lot of people that you should take away a politician or two, they would probably say that that's a good thing. That's not so in the Territory. We, obviously, as a territory, have only two senators, and we have two lower house members—four representatives to the federal parliament for the whole of the Territory. So Territorians are very well aware of their need for federal representation. They're very well aware of the role that the federal government plays. They're well aware that Labor, in the Northern Territory, has sent us broke and that if we were a company we would be bankrupt. So they're well aware of the need for the federal government to provide for the programs, the services and the infrastructure that Territorians need. If we look just at the geography of the Northern Territory, at almost 1.4 million square kilometres it's absolutely huge.

As has been said by my colleagues, it also includes Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) islands. To get to these islands, one must actually travel—and one did, pre-COVID, as well; this has not been affected by COVID—via Perth or via Malaysia. I don't imagine there are too many other jurisdictions in the world where you not only have to leave your state or territory but actually to travel through another country to get to another part of your state or territory. It's unique and quite amazing. I know the people of Christmas and Cocos islands value their federal representation and they, feeling so isolated—as they are, sitting out there in the middle of the ocean—realise that, with less representation, they're hardly ever going to see anybody ever. For a group of people who are fairly marginalised and very isolated, you can imagine that that is not something that they would welcome.

As for the rest of the Territory, as I said, it's almost 1.4 million square kilometres and very, very difficult to get around. We have very few roads. Most of the roads that we do have can be cut off, sometimes for large parts of the year. A lot of them are fairly poor and not very easily passed. A lot of the Territory you can't even get to by road for large parts of the year, sometimes even all year. We have quite a few islands as well, such as Groote Eylandt, Croker Island, Melville Island and Bathurst Island, accessible only via barge or air, and, again, difficult and time-consuming to get around. You can imagine that taking one of four representatives out of that mix is going to mean that these people are not going to be able to see or speak to a federal representative or show them their part of the world and their issues, or hardly ever, which would be quite a negative thing for, again, people who are often the most disadvantaged, marginalised people in our country.

We have the two electorates, Solomon and Lingiari. They are very, very different. Solomon is basically Darwin. Darwin is a reasonably modern, cosmopolitan, urbanised city these days, and then you have Lingiari, which is all of the rest—basically, almost all of those 1.4 million square kilometres. Lingiari is approximately 40 per cent Indigenous—again, some of the most isolated, disadvantaged and marginalised people in the world. Having only one federal representative to serve them would be quite unfair and, quite frankly, disastrous for the Northern Territory.

Also, if we look at the socioeconomics, I know there are both ends of the spectrum in every state and territory, but it was certainly typified to me how much that is so in the Territory just last week. I was sitting in a building in Darwin which had lovely 360-degree views all around the harbour and the city with three of the richest people in the Northern Territory. We're talking billions, not millions here. Typically, when you think of someone who is wealthy in the Territory it's someone who can buy a round without taking out a bank loan! But that isn't the case with these people; we had billions of dollars assembled in that room. The very next day, I was sitting in the dirt north of Tennant Creek with a group of traditional owners. We say 'traditional owners', but they don't have the money, the land, the businesses or the education of the three men I was with the day before.

That's very typical of the Territory. We tend to get extremes, and lots of people at those extremes. Those traditional owners who were sitting there in the dirt were getting part of their traditional land handed back to them—600 square kilometres, which is not a lot, particularly in that part of the country. In that part of the country, 600 square kilometres would probably run 10 head of cattle, so it's not a lot. But they were happy that it was getting handed back to them. So I was sitting there in the dirt with severely marginalised and disadvantaged people, compared with the big end of town. Whilst there are extremes in all jurisdictions, that is certainly emphasised in the Territory, and we have a lot of our population at the lower extreme rather than at the top extreme. These people value their representation—they really do. People in remote Indigenous communities think it's a great honour and they're very happy when a federal representative, of whatever persuasion, comes to see them. They really do appreciate it; they put time aside and they want to talk to you about their issues.

I thank senator James McGrath, the chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, for the work that he and the committee did on this inquiry and the report from that, which was handed up to the Senate this week and which recommended a couple of different methods by which we might maintain representation. I'm very pleased that this bill enshrines in law the use of the harmonic mean—otherwise referred to as Dean's method—for determining representation, as that will not only guarantee that the NT retains its two seats currently but also make it easier, as our population grows, for us to move from two up to three. I think this is an excellent resolution. I'm very, very proud to be part of the government that has put this bill forward. I thank all my colleagues, and I thank former Senator Cormann for the work that he did on it and also Senator Birmingham for taking over and carrying on that work, presenting us with a very good piece of legislation.

I acknowledge Senators Farrell and McCarthy for their support—for working with me and for their faith in me and the government to deliver on this. With great pride, and on behalf of all Territorians I commend this legislation to the Senate.