2 April 2015

ACT electorate redistribution proposal unveiled

| John Hope
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electoral redistribution proposal

The ACT Redistribution Committee has today announced its proposed redistribution of the ACT into five electorates.

Currently the ACT has three electorates:

  • The electorate of Molonglo elects seven members of the Legislative Assembly and encompasses the town centres of North Canberra, South Canberra, Weston Creek, and parts of the ACT to the north and east of Canberra.
  • The electorate of Ginninderra elects five members of the Legislative Assembly and encompasses the suburbs of Belconnen and the suburb of Nicholls.
  • The electorate of Brindabella elects five members of the Legislative Assembly and encompasses the suburbs of Tuggeranong, Chifley, Pearce and Torrens, and all of the ACT which is south of the Murrumbidgee River.

The Redistribution Committee has proposed that the 5 electorates for the ACT Legislative Assembly be as follows:

  • Brindabella, comprising the district of Tuggeranong (excluding the suburb of Kambah) and the districts of Booth, Cotter River, Paddys River, Rendezvous Creek, Tennent and Mount Clear.
  • Ginninderra, comprising the district of Belconnen (excluding the suburbs of Evatt, Giralang, Kaleen, Lawson and McKellar).
  • Kurrajong, comprising the districts of Canberra Central, Jerrabomberra, Kowen and Majura.
  • Murrumbidgee, comprising the districts of Molonglo Valley, Weston Creek, Woden Valley, Coree and Stromlo, and the Tuggeranong suburb of Kambah;
  • Yerrabi, comprising the districts of Gungahlin and Hall, and the Belconnen suburbs of Evatt, Giralang, Kaleen, Lawson and McKellar.

Simon Corbell, Jeremy Hanson, Giulia Jones, Vicky Dunne, Alastair Coe, are among the ACT politicians that will be displaced from living in their electorates if the proposed changes go ahead.

Members of the public are invited to make objections to the redistribution with the ACT Electoral Commission by no later than 28 April 2015.

Objections should be lodged at:

ACT Electoral Commission
Ground Floor, North building, Civic Square
London Circuit
Canberra ACT 2601
Postal Address: PO Box 272, CIVIC SQUARE ACT 2608

Or via https://www.elections.act.gov.au/redistribution.

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Queanbeyanite said :

What a joke! abolish the local council and let Queanbeyan City Council maintain the roads, treat the sewage and collect the garbage.

Last time I checked, NSW local government isn’t directly responsible for sewage or sewerage.

Crazed_Loner12:54 am 03 Apr 15

Queanbeyanite said :

What a joke! abolish the local council and let Queanbeyan City Council maintain the roads, treat the sewage and collect the garbage.

Funny, just the other day someone suggested to me that Canberra should take over Queanbeyan but I advised him that the costs would be too great to bring it up to standard. As for treating Canberra’s sewerage, what a ‘great’ idea considering that we treat Queanbeyan’s every time the rivers flood and it comes floating down through the lake.

Queanbeyanite5:58 pm 02 Apr 15

What a joke! abolish the local council and let Queanbeyan City Council maintain the roads, treat the sewage and collect the garbage.

rommeldog56 said :

pajs said :

rommeldog56 said :

So, apart from the number of suburbs and geographical size, does anyone know how many voters will be in each of the 5 electorates ?

Table on page 2 of the report has the numbers. Jan 2015 enrolment numbers follow. It looks pretty even.

Brindabella
53,091

Ginninderra
53,769

Kurrajong
56,302

Murrumbidgee
54,811

Yerrabi
53,063

Thanks. Nicely balanced at the moment. Though I think Gunners (Yerrabi) is still expanding and the Molonglo Valley (Murrumbidgee) still has about 13 suburbs or so yet to go in so down the track, that growth may lead to more adjustments in boundries – but hopefully no more new MLAs.

The size of the assembly is one thing; the electorate boundaries within that system is a subordinate process. That is, under the current arrangements, there will be redistributions yet it will still need to be 5 x 5. (Having said that, there has been some previous talk of expanding the assembly down the track.)

pajs said :

rommeldog56 said :

So, apart from the number of suburbs and geographical size, does anyone know how many voters will be in each of the 5 electorates ?

Table on page 2 of the report has the numbers. Jan 2015 enrolment numbers follow. It looks pretty even.

Brindabella
53,091

Ginninderra
53,769

Kurrajong
56,302

Murrumbidgee
54,811

Yerrabi
53,063

Thanks. Nicely balanced at the moment. Though I think Gunners (Yerrabi) is still expanding and the Molonglo Valley (Murrumbidgee) still has about 13 suburbs or so yet to go in so down the track, that growth may lead to more adjustments in boundries – but hopefully no more new MLAs.

rommeldog56 said :

So, apart from the number of suburbs and geographical size, does anyone know how many voters will be in each of the 5 electorates ?

Table on page 2 of the report has the numbers. Jan 2015 enrolment numbers follow. It looks pretty even.

Brindabella
53,091

Ginninderra
53,769

Kurrajong
56,302

Murrumbidgee
54,811

Yerrabi
53,063

rommeldog56 said :

So, apart from the number of suburbs and geographical size, does anyone know how many voters will be in each of the 5 electorates ?

There are are 271,036 registered voters as of 30 january this year. Projected to be 279,845 in October 2016.
Each electorate sits around the 55,969 although Brindabell is smallest and Kurrajong largest, but both sit within +/-5%.

report is here http://www.elections.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/13363/RedistributionProposal2015.pdf

Ginninderra currently has the Belconnen district plus the suburbs of Nicholls, correct. It also has Hall, Palmerston and Crace.

So, apart from the number of suburbs and geographical size, does anyone know how many voters will be in each of the 5 electorates ?

That is a huge jump in numbers in the ACT Assembly from 17 to 25.

The flow on cost of a larger assembly chamber and more staff and offices is going to bite, but on the bright side there will at least be a backbench to put some of the not so talented members. As it stands being in Government and NOT getting to be a Minister is to be the odd one out.

What we actually need is an extra seat in the Australian House of Reps.

We are so under represented it is close to a gerrymander against us.

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