THE Mallee federal electorate should not be expanded, according to the bulk of suggestions to a boundaries review.
Victoria and New South Wales must lose one seat each due to population changes, prompting the Australian Electoral Commission to conduct redistributions.
The new boundaries will likely take effect at the next federal election.
Politicians, political parties and members of the general public have made suggestions to the AEC on division names and boundaries, including which seats should be abolished.
Despite Mallee’s enrolment being projected to decline at the last redistribution in 2021, it has instead increased, keeping the seat with more voters than the statewide average.
The predominant suggestion made for Mallee by members of the public was for the boundaries to be left unchanged.
Some submitters did, however, advocate for Mallee to surrender voters to the neighbouring Wannon, Bendigo and Nicholls, while adding fewer or no voters back.
Suggestions by The Nationals advocated for existing boundaries for the outer five rural seats in Victoria to remain unamended.
Their submission strongly urged the AEC to “not unnecessarily amend the boundary between Mallee or Nicholls”.
Labor’s submission said it had attempted to unite five currently split local government areas into respective divisions.
However, in Mallee it surrendered electors from Stawell and Avoca to Wannon, and added electors from Lockington-Gunbower, splitting them from the rest of Campaspe Shire.
The Greens suggested a “small adjustment” by moving Avoca into Wannon would “act as a safeguard against population growth not proving consistent with projections”.
The Liberal Party, whose submission will not be considered as they missed the deadline, suggested Mallee did not need to gain or transfer electors.
For Farrer, there was an even split between those who wanted boundary change and those who wanted no changes.
A common suggestion, including by the NSW Nationals, was for Farrer to gain electors from Lockhart Shire near Wagga Wagga.
Other suggestions added voters closer to Wentworth Shire, including Cobar, Central Darling, Broken Hill, Bourke and unincorporated NSW.
The Greens and Liberal parties made no specific reference to Farrer, while Labor said Farrer should remain unchanged.
A committee will review suggestions and comments before releasing proposed divisions early next year.
