SMH · Paul Sakkal · Tuesday 31 March 2026
Labor and the Coalition united behind a push to add roughly 40 MPs to parliament, with critics arguing both parties are motivated by self-interest rather than improved representation.
Both sides of the aisle finally found common ground — turns out the one thing that unites Labor and Liberal is the prospect of more seats for their own. Forty extra MPs in a building that can't pass a housing bill or fix the submarines. Metternich expanded his bureaucracy to manage an empire; we're expanding ours to manage the car park. The only growth industry in Canberra is Canberra.