The ACT Electoral Commission is proposing changes to the ACT’s electoral boundaries.
Specifically:
— The suburbs of Palmerston and Crace be transferred from Molonglo to Ginninderra; and
— The portion of the district of Molonglo Valley north of the Molonglo River be transferred from Ginninderra to Molonglo.
A pdf of the proposed map is online, as is the reasoning behind the proposals.
The ACT EC now awaits comments and objections.
Bear in mind the number of electorates and members is beyond the scope of a redistribution.
UPDATE: Gungahlin Al sent this in:
It seems the ACT Electoral Commission’s Boundary Redistribution Committee is baulking at fixing the “Molonglo Problem” yet again.
Today they have released their recommendation to again just tinker around the edges, further fragmenting Gungahlin’s representation across two electorates.
Instead they could be making a more significant step to fix the issue of the Molonglo electorate being sprawled from the northern border, wrapping around Belconnen, and then down almost to Tuggeranong.
It needs fixing because it is a very difficult electorate to represent, and it will only get worse as Gungahlin expands into new development in Harrison, Moncrieff, Kenny, Throsby, Ngunnawal and then Jacka. Likewise, the Molonglo development will make it harder to balance the electorates without further fragmentation.
The Canberra Times sees it as a front-page story, reporting though that the Gungahlin Community Council proposal to fix the problem is getting significant support:
A campaign by Gungahlin community activists may be about to force one of the territory’s biggest electoral boundary carve-ups.
The proposed changes would throw political preparation for next year’s territory election into turmoil and create a new ”super electorate”, taking in nearly all of Canberra’s north.
The push for the radical shake-up that would see 34,000 voters shunted into a new electorate is being driven by lobbying by Gungahlin residents who are fighting to keep the cluster of new suburbs voting as a bloc.
The GCC submission proposes that all of Belconnen and Gungahlin be combined into one 7-member electorate. In the interim it would also need to include one North Canberra suburb (Watson) to make up the numbers, but this would quickly drop off as the population grows in Harrison and Bonner.
The electorates would then essentially be north, central and south.
The period for objections to the Electoral Commission’s recommendations (or support or object to the alternatives) closes on 2 June.
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