Senator IAN MACDONALD (Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) (10:41 AM) —I move:

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

COMMONWEALTH ELECTORAL AMENDMENT (REPRESENTATION IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES) BILL 2004

The Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Representation in the House of Representatives) Bill 2004 will ensure the transparency and certainty of the process for calculating the representative entitlement for each of the States and Territories in the House of Representatives and will maintain at the next federal election the Northern Territory's current representation of two members.

On 19 February 2003, the Electoral Commissioner determined the number of members of the House of Representatives to be chosen by the States and Territories at a general election. The determination was made under section 48 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918. The Electoral Commissioner determined that representation would change for Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Queensland gained an additional seat to have a total of 28 members, while South Australia and the Northern Territory each lost one seat. South Australia's representation has fallen to 11 seats. Only one member would be chosen for the Northern Territory as its population fell short of the quota by 295 people in order to retain its existing two seats.

The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters inquired into representation of the Territories in the House of Representatives following a request from the Special Minister of State, Senator the Hon Eric Abetz, in July 2003. The Committee's report, entitled Territory Representation: Report of the Inquiry into Increasing the Minimum Representation for the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory in the House of Representatives, was tabled on 1 December 2003.

This Bill gives effect to the Government response to the Committee's report.

The Committee made two recommendations aimed at ensuring both the transparency and certainty of the process used for the making of determinations for representation in the House of Representatives and a third recommendation for the Government to set aside the Electoral Commissioner's determination of February 2003 to the extent that it applied to the Northern Territory.

The Government agrees with the Committee's findings that more transparency and certainty is required in the process of the Electoral Commissioner's determinations, particularly the use of the latest published statistics used in his calculations. Confusion has surrounded the concept of the latest statistics of the Commonwealth and specifically what are the relevant statistics provided by the Australian Statistician to the Electoral Commissioner to make his determination.

The absence of a legislative definition of the `latest' statistics of the Commonwealth has had the unintended consequence of providing the Australian Statistician, and to a lesser extent, the Electoral Commissioner, with a degree of discretion when deciding which statistics will be used to determine State and Territory representative entitlements in the House of Representatives.

The Government therefore supports the Committee's findings in these areas and agrees that legislative amendments be made to clearly specify that:

the statistics to be provided by the Australian Statistician for the purpose of the Electoral Commissioner's determination are to be the most recent set of statistics compiled and published by the Australian Statistician in a regular series under the Census and Statistics Act 1905;

the Australian Statistician should also provide the Electoral Commissioner information relating to the estimate of the net undercount for the ACT and the Northern Territory at the last Census. Where there is a shortfall in either of the Territories' calculations for an additional seat within two standard errors of the estimate of the net undercount—or margin of error—then the Electoral Commissioner is required to re-calculate the Territories' representative entitlements; and

the Electoral Commissioner is to make and publish his calculations, and any necessary adjustments required under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 used in those calculations, within a specified period—one month after the first 12 months of the first sitting of the House of Representatives of a new Parliament.

The Government agrees that, whilst the existing basic principle for determining the number of Members for the Territories should not be disturbed, the confusion surrounding the use of the statistics in the February 2003 determination warrants that the Northern Territory's representation be maintained at its current level of two seats at the next election. It therefore supports the Committee's recommendation to set aside the Electoral Commissioner's determination of 19 February 2003. This Bill does this and provides that the most recent determination made before February 2003 is to apply to the Northern Territory.

This was a bipartisan report, and the Government thanks the Committee for the report.

I commend the Bill to the Senate.

Ordered that the resumption of the debate be made an order of the day for a later hour.