Representation in parliament
Trust in institutions
Metric
Representation in federal Australian parliament
Why this matters
Public institutions must be representative of the Australian community they serve if trust in them is to be maintained and grown. The demographic composition of the parliament provides insight into how well it reflects the diversity of the community.
Progress
Data from the Parliamentary Handbook shows that the proportion of federal parliamentarians who are women has increased over the past 20 years.
In 2022, at the opening of the latest (47th) parliament:
- 44% of federal parliamentarians were women, up from 26% in 2002
- 38% of total filled seats in the House of Representatives were women, up from 25% in 2002
- 57% of total filled seats in the Senate were women, up from 28% in 2002.
As of August 2024:
- 4.4% of federal parliamentarians are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, up from 0.4% on the parliamentary opening date in 2002 (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people represented 3.8% of the total Australian population at the 2021 Census)
- 7.6% of federal parliamentarians are aged under 40 years, while 28% of the Australian population is aged between 20 and 40 years.
According to a 2022 analysis by the Parliamentary Library, 4.4% of federal parliamentarians identified as LGBTIQA+, up from 0.9% in 2002.