In an age in which people across the world are increasingly losing trust in democratic institutions, the demographic make-up of our Federal Parliament is under growing scrutiny. As Australia’s population grows and changes, with a higher proportion of young people, greater diversity of ethnic and cultural background, changing gender identities and increasing inequality of wealth and income, citizens are demanding more accountability from political leaders.
Voters want their elected representatives not only to listen to and advocate for their needs but to understand and, if not share, then at least empathise with their experiences. When political power is concentrated in the hands of people who come from culturally similar upbringings, and relatively more privileged backgrounds than the people they are entrusted to represent, that understanding and empathy can be more difficult to achieve.
By exploring representation broadly through different demographic lenses, Per Capita’s parliamentary analysis series, The Way In, seeks to understand the paths to political power in Australia’s Federal Parliament. This is the third in the series and examines the backgrounds of elected members of the 47th Federal Parliament. It follows analyses of the 45th Parliament, published in 2019, and the 46th Parliament, published in 2022.
The Commonwealth Parliament elected on 19 May 2022 is arguably the most representative of the Australian people of any in our history. The achievement of gender parity by the Australian Labor Party, some 30 years after it introduced affirmative action quotas to lift the number of women MPs and Senators, is significant, and has produced the most gender-equal government Australia has ever had. Similar gains in gender representation have been achieved on the crossbench; indeed, were it not for the recalcitrance of the Coalition parties in promoting women within their ranks, the Federal Parliament itself would be truly representative of the proportion of men and women in the Australian population. (We note that no Parliamentarian has yet identified as non-binary, and that Australia currently lacks the demographic data to understand the prevalence of non-binary gender identities in the population as a whole).
There was also a surge of new parliamentarians from non-European ethnic backgrounds in 2022, largely due to the election of new Labor candidates in marginal seats. Cultural diversity is poorly represented on the crossbench, with newly elected members for the Greens and the community-based independent movement coming from Australian and European backgrounds, with the exception of Dai Le in Fowler. Additionally, four former Coalition members have resigned from their party to sit on the crossbenches since the 2022 election, all of whom are from English-speaking Australian or European backgrounds.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are now proportionally represented in Parliament, with the percentage of First Nations parliamentarians now outstripping that of the general population. This, however, has failed to translate into the meaningful representation First Nations people sought through the adoption of a Voice to Parliament in the Australian Constitution, which was denied by a vote of the people in the October 2023 Referendum.
It is important to note that a strong and effective parliament does not necessarily rely on perfect proportional representation of the diverse attributes of members of Australian society. However, as demonstrated by the achievement of more gender-equitable policies such as paid parental leave by governments with more female members and leaders, representation matters: diversity of background and experience leads to a deeper understanding of our society and can result in better policy making in the national interest.
This edition of The Way In provides a comparison of those we elect to make decisions in our national interest with we, the people they are entrusted to represent. It shows that, while we have come far, there is further to go.
