Northern Territory makes another bid for statehood Bid for statehood ... the Northern Territory Source: Supplied If it looks like a state, and it acts like a state, then why shouldn't the Northern Territory become a state? So says Attorney-General John Elferink, as the NT government prepares to take another tilt at statehood. Championing statehood ... Northern Territory Attorney-General John Elferink. "We are treated as a state now, we are financially operating as a state," he told reporters in Darwin on Friday. If we're treated as a state, and funded as a state, then we should have the rights as well as the obligations of a state. Last week's Council of Australian Governments meeting was the first with Prime Minister Tony Abbott and featured a brief discussion on progressing statehood for the NT. "There's only one way to become an extra state and that's by the approval of the Commonwealth parliament," Mr Elferink said. I would be hopeful we'd make a tilt for that as soon as we can. He said "positive noises were made" by other state and territory leaders at COAG, and it would be discussed at future meetings. "One of the challenges of becoming a full state with full state equivalencies is the fact that a full state would have 12 senators in the current arrangements," Mr Elferink said. The Australian Constitution demands there is a 1:2 ratio between the Senate and the House of Representatives, so adding 10 senators to the NT would mean an extra 20 seats in the House of Representatives. "This is the sort of challenge we would have to face while convincing other jurisdictions we're deserving of full statehood," Mr Elferink said. In 1911 the responsibility of governing NT was transferred from South Australia to the Commonwealth, and the NT wasn't granted self-governance until 1978. A 1998 referendum on statehood was voted down by Territorians. It's effectively treated as a state now, so there's no reason to keep it as a territory. Australia's north will be increasingly important to its future prosperity, both in industry (particularly agriculture) and as a gateway to Asia. Politicians as diverse as Bob Katter and Kevin Rudd have called attention to the need for a greater focus on Northern Australia. Statehood would assist that process. In many ways it's Australia's heartland. The Federation doesn't have to stay the same forever; it's healthy to review these things from time to time. "Northern State" is a really boring name. The Senate is enough of a problem as it is ... why make it worse? We might have to change the flag. The Federation Star on the flag has seven points - six representing the existing states, and one representing the territories and any future states. Will the ACT and other territories feel like they're losing their place on the star? There's no real demand for it, and the Territorians said they didn't want it just 15 years ago. The population is tiny - approximately 200,000 - or one per cent of the country's population. O ver to you. What are some of the reasons why the Northern Territory should or should not be reclassified as a state?