Representation in parliament
Trust in institutions
Release date and time
15/09/2025 11:30am AEST
Released 15/09/2025
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
In 2025, at the opening of the 48th federal parliament:
- 50% of federal parliamentarians were women, up from 26% in 2004
- 4.0% of federal parliamentarians were Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people, up from 0.4% on the parliamentary opening date in 2004 (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people represented 3.2% of the total Australian population at the 2021 Census).
According to a 2023 analysis by the Parliamentary Library, 3.5% of federal parliamentarians identified as LGBTIQ+, up from 1.3% in 2004.