With Canberra now likely to overtake Tasmania as Australia's sixth most populous jurisdiction within the next 10 years, questions must be asked about where we are going to put all the people and how they will be represented politically.
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Canberra's population grew at a rate of 8.89 per cent a year, the fastest of any state or territory, from 2010 to 2016 and stood at 390,800 in June last year.
Tasmania, in contrast, grew at just 1.77 per cent over the same period and was home to 516,600 souls last June.
Tasmania's half a million occupy an archipelago covering 68,401 square kilometres with a population density of just 7.55 persons per square kilometre.
In the ACT, where almost 400,000 people live in a jurisdiction covering just 2,280 square kilometres, the population density is the highest in Australia at 171.4 people per square kilometre.
With the latest ACT Government modelling predicting Canberra's population will increase by about 25,000 people between now and 2020 to around 420,000 our town planners and land development agencies have a big job ahead of them.
This paper has run numerous stories on the high cost of local building blocks and the time it has taken in the last decade to get new subdivisions on the market and ready for development.
We are already seeing cross border developments around Queanbeyan, to the north of Belconnen and as far out as Murrumbateman and Yass coming on line to meet pent up demand.
Future residents of these subdivisions, like Canberra's current population of commuters, many of whom come from as far afield as Yass, Goulburn, Bungendore, Captain's Flat and Boorowa, are Territorians in all but name.
They rely on Canberra for jobs, health care, specialist technical services, shopping and a host of other benefits but, because they have a cross border address, don't make a direct contribution to the Territory's coffers through rates and other levies and charges.
Just as significant an issue is the gross under representation of the ACT in the Federal Senate.
This is the result of an anachronistic principle, dating back to 1974 when the ACT population was about 185,000, that says territories are only entitled to two Senators compared to 12 for states.
Even though Canberra and Tasmania will soon be running neck-and-neck in the population stakes, Apple Isle voters return 10 more senators than Canberrans. Or, to put it another way, our two Senators represent about 190,000 people each compared to 43,050 for their 12 Tasmanian peers.
Such an imbalance, which also affects the Northern Territory but to a lesser degree given its significantly smaller population, needs to be corrected.
