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Speaker 1: How do you like this idea? Looks like the Aussie

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Speaker 1: government wants more politicians. Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that

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Speaker 1: the Albanese government is pushing to add forty new seats

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Speaker 1: to their parliament, twelve in the Senate, twenty four in

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Speaker 1: the lower house. The Liberal Party is going to oppose

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Speaker 1: the change. Charles Croucher is the nine News chief Political

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Speaker 1: edit down with us. Welcome back to Charles, Hey, Heather.

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Speaker 1: Why they want to do this?

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Speaker 2: More police? That's what the country needs, isn't it always

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Speaker 2: fixes that? Look, there is a real concern there hasn't

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Speaker 2: been an increase in the number of politicians in my lifetime.

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Speaker 2: And I wouldn't call myself old, but my knees hurt

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Speaker 2: when I wake up, and sort of that kind of age.

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Speaker 2: And the parliament's at now. The issue is that we've

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Speaker 2: now got electorates that are so large it's getting harder

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Speaker 2: to represent. There is also an imbalance between the states,

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Speaker 2: the larger states and the territories in particular, and that

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Speaker 2: dates back to federation. So there's a few things that

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Speaker 2: need to be ironed out to try and make representation fairer. Look,

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Speaker 2: given the way the poling is at the moment, in

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Speaker 2: the way that politics around the world is trending, I

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Speaker 2: think you'd see it more mixed parliament produced. And we

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Speaker 2: have that problem that you don't that any time you

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Speaker 2: increase the number of seats in the House of Representatives

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Speaker 2: so you better represent people on a per capita basis,

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Speaker 2: you've also got to bump up the seats in the Senate,

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Speaker 2: and that state by state, not per capita. So it's

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Speaker 2: finding that balancing act. This is something that's been discussed

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Speaker 2: for a little while over here. It's a proposal the

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Speaker 2: Labor Government seems set to take up and it's one

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Speaker 2: that given the numbers in the Parliament, has a chance

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Speaker 2: of getting through.

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Speaker 1: Now, given that particularly now politicians trust and politicians has

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Speaker 1: fallen that you know, the public is not really in

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Speaker 1: the mood for the political class. Is this going to fly?

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Speaker 2: You wouldn't think so, would you. That's the hardest point

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Speaker 2: is making this case that you need more people to

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Speaker 2: represent you. Look, I think there's some canny politicians, particularly

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Speaker 2: around the minor parties and one nation that would see

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Speaker 2: this as a chance to get more influence into the

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Speaker 2: Parliament and more of their own people in there. But

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Speaker 2: we're already pretty over governed over here. It's not just

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Speaker 2: the federal parliament you've got to think about, but state parliaments.

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Speaker 2: Often the states have upper houses, and there's local councils

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Speaker 2: and local governments as well. Any time you make the

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Speaker 2: case you need more police, and more police equals more pay,

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Speaker 2: and more pay equals more staff and all the rest

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Speaker 2: that go with that, you do wonder if we are

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Speaker 2: catching more people and therefore getting the best and brightest

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Speaker 2: into the building in Canberra, or this is just more

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Speaker 2: people from, as you said, the political class, more staffers

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Speaker 2: that graduate to MPs, and whether that actually produces better

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Speaker 2: laws or not. Look, it's interesting. There's been lots of

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Speaker 2: chat over here and a lot of parliamentary time spent

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Speaker 2: on this, and nothing like politicians talking about themselves. But

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Speaker 2: we'll see it. Guys.

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Speaker 1: Do you reckon Elbo can waste the political capital on

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Speaker 1: this right now?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I think if you're going to do it at any time,

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Speaker 2: now is the time to do it. I think he would.

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Speaker 2: He could make the argument this is about representing people better,

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Speaker 2: particularly in growing and expanding cities. My concern not so

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Speaker 2: much now is if you don't do it now, I

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Speaker 2: just don't know when you would.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Charles, it's always good to talk to you. Thank

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Speaker 1: you mate, Thanks for running us through it this Charles Croucher,

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Speaker 1: nine News chief Political Editor.

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