Around the world democratic institutions are at a critical juncture. Trust in government is in decline across much of the OECD. While Australia fares better than the United States, the United Kingdom and the OECD average, fewer than half of Australians report high or moderately high trust in the federal government. The Scanlon Foundation also reports that 45% of adults believe our system of government needs major change or replacement, up from 31% in 2020. According to the 2025 McKinnon Index, trust in Federal politicians is at 35.9% and political parties at 31.2%.
Other measures are more promising. In the 2023 Australian Public Service Commission Trust and Satisfaction in Australian Democracy Survey, 59% of respondents said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the way democracy works in Australia, while 13% said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied. However, the same survey revealed significant concerns among those dissatisfied with democracy: 13% felt under-represented by politicians and government services. Against this background the composition of parliament matters.
Representation is not only symbolic; it also shapes how public policy responds to a diverse nation.
Our parliament is formally based on principles of geographical representation, but there are growing calls for greater inclusion of Australians from diverse cultural backgrounds, people with disability, and others whose presence has traditionally been absent from the national legislature.
This edition of The Way In examines the 48th Australian Parliament, elected in 2025. It follows our analyses of the 45th, 46th and 47th parliaments, and continues to trace the pathways by which Australians enter political life. We explore representation through the lenses of gender, Indigeneity, cultural and ethnic background, education, age and employment, comparing those who sit in our national legislature with the people they serve.
Diversity in parliament has substantive effects on which issues are prioritised and how they are addressed. The entry of more women into parliament, for example, has been linked to
greater attention to childcare, parental leave, family violence and pay equity reforms.
Yet class remains an under-acknowledged dimension of representation in Australia, and it is difficult to capture with the metrics used in this report. Class continues to shape political experience and access to decision-making, even if it is less visible than gender or ethnicity. Some class markers are reflected in parliamentarians’ occupational and educational backgrounds but these are not perfect measures.
The Way In tells us something, but not everything: it provides a statistical snapshot of who sits in parliament and the pathways they have taken, while recognising that numbers alone cannot capture the full complexity of representation.
Key Findings:
- Gender parity is closer than ever. Women now make up 49.6% of federal parliamentarians, the highest share in history. For the first time, the Federal Cabinet has a female majority (52.2%).
- First Nations representation remains above population share. Nine Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parliamentarians (4%) sit in the 48th Parliament, but without collective mechanisms their influence depends heavily on party alignment.
- Cultural diversity has broadened, but gaps persist. Parliament has become less Anglo-Celtic, yet large communities such as Chinese Australians remain under-represented.
- Overseas-born Australians are under-represented in Parliament. Only 12.8% of MPs and Senators were born overseas, compared with 29.3% of the population. The constitutional prohibition on people with dual citizenship sitting in Parliament is a significant barrier for overseas-born Australians standing for federal office.
- Parliament is ageing compared to voters. MPs and Senators are dominated by Generation X and Baby Boomers, while Millennials are under-represented and Gen Z almost absent. The median age of parliamentarians is about a decade older than the median age of voters.
- Educational background is elite. Nearly one in three MPs and Senators hold postgraduate degrees (compared with 6.5% of Australians). Parliament is overwhelmingly university-educated relative to the general population.
- Political pathways are narrow. Almost all MPs and Senators came from managerial or professional roles before entering Parliament, leaving vocational and working-class experiences largely absent.