News - Government

The ACT Electoral Commission has announced their final recommendations to the ACT Government for the electoral boundary redistribution. The only change that they are proposing is that the suburb of Farrer be transferred from Molonglo to Brindabella. A previous recommendation that Palmerston also be moved from Molonglo into Ginninderra has been dropped after representations from the Gungahlin Community Council.

Currently all of Gungahlin except Nicholls is in the Molonglo electorate, and we have been trying to get that fixed. The idea of also moving Palmerston would have made it even harder to all of Gungahlin back into the one electorate. So preventing the shift of Palmerston is kind of a win. However, our push for a more substantive rearrangement to correct the sprawling nature of the Molonglo electorate has not been taken up.

We have written previously here about our concerns that Molonglo stretches from the ACT northern boundaries almost all the way to Tuggeranong, making it hard for elected representatives to do a decent job of covering such an electorate. And that was the key point I pushed on behalf of the GCC at the public hearing of the Electoral Commission on 18 July.

So with such strong population growth going to be centred around Gungahlin and Molonglo, we can be sure of revisiting the whole issue again in three or four years time...

Thanks again to Jonathon Reynolds for providing the spreadsheet tool that allowed us to together a high-quality and statistically substantiated submission. The Commission was very keen to see our tool working, and my suggestion that they provide such a tool for the public to use with future redistributions was well received.

You can read our full objection via the link above, and the Commission's full media release follows:

MEDIA RELEASE from the ACT Electoral Commission

Changes to ACT Legislative Assembly electoral boundaries proposed by the Augmented ACT Electoral Commission

Further changes to the ACT Legislative Assembly electoral boundaries have been proposed by the Augmented ACT Electoral Commission, the ACT Electoral Commissioner Phillip Green said today.

After considering 8 objections to the boundaries proposed by the ACT Redistribution Committee, the augmented Electoral Commission has proposed transferring only the Woden Valley suburb of Farrer from the electorate of Molonglo to the electorate of Brindabella.  The augmented Commission has proposed leaving the Gungahlin suburb of Palmerston unchanged in the Molonglo electorate.

This proposal is different to the Redistribution Committee's proposal published on 31 May 2007, which suggested that Palmerston should be transferred from Molonglo to Ginninderra, as well as suggesting that Farrer should be transferred from Molonglo to Brindabella.  The Augmented Commission's new proposal leaves the electorate of Ginninderra unchanged.

Members of the public have 28 days in which to object to the Augmented ACT Electoral Commission's proposal.  Objections in writing may be made to the ACT Electoral Commission up to 23 August 2007.

The proposed electorates are as follows:

• BRINDABELLA, a five member electorate comprising the district of Tuggeranong (excluding the suburb of Hume), the Woden Valley suburbs of Chifley, Farrer, Pearce and Torrens and the southern remainder of the ACT.
• GINNINDERRA, a five member electorate comprising the districts of Belconnen and Hall (including the entire village of Hall) and the Gungahlin suburb of Nicholls.
• MOLONGLO, a seven member electorate comprising the districts of Gungahlin (excluding the suburb of Nicholls), Canberra Central, Weston Creek, Woden Valley (excluding the suburbs of Chifley, Farrer, Pearce and Torrens), Jerrabomberra (including the entire suburb of Hume), Kowen, Majura, and Stromlo.

One key requirement for an ACT redistribution is ensuring that electoral enrolments in the three electorates will be within +/- 5% of the quota at the time of the next election.  This requirement is aimed at ensuring -one vote, one value', Mr Green said.  The quota for the two 5 member electorates is 5/17 of the ACT total enrolment, and the quota for the 7 member electorate is 7/17 of the ACT total.

The following table shows the enrolment totals in each current electorate in July 2007 and projected enrolment totals at the time of the next election in October 2008.  This table shows that the electorate of Molonglo is expected to be around 4.8% over the quota in 2008, or about 200 electors short of the permitted 5% maximum.

Existing electorate	Number of members	Enrolment July 2007	% above or below quota 2007	Projected enrolment October 2008	% above or below quota 2008
Brindabella	5	68 135	-2.3%	68 124	-3.0%
Ginninderra	5	67 442	-3.3%	67 643	-3.7%
Molonglo	7	101 487	4.0%	103 051	4.8%

The Augmented ACT Electoral Commission considered that, if the boundaries are not changed, there is a high possibility that the electorate of Molonglo will exceed the quota by 5% at the time of the 2008 election.  Molonglo contains most of the population-growth areas in the ACT, and is growing faster than the electorates of Brindabella and Ginninderra.

The Augmented ACT Electoral Commission's proposed boundaries would reduce the size of Molonglo and increase Brindabella, bringing the two electorates closer to the quota in 2008, whilst minimising disturbance to the current electorates.  Ginninderra is projected to remain within 5% of the quota without change in 2008.  The following table sets out the enrolment projections for the proposed electorates.

Proposed electorate	Number of members	Enrolment July 2007	% above or below quota 2007	Projected enrolment October 2008	% above or below quota 2008
Brindabella	5	70 698	1.4%	70 597	0.5%
Ginninderra	5	67 442	-3.3%	67 643	-3.7%
Molonglo	7	89 924	1.3%	100 578	2.3%

A map of the proposed electorates can be obtained from the ACT Electoral Commission's website, www.elections.act.gov.au.

A notice inviting public objections and including a map of the proposed electorates is being published in the Canberra Times on 26 July 2007.  The Augmented ACT Electoral Commission's reasons for its proposal and copies of public suggestions, comments and objections made to the Committee are available from the ACT Electoral Commission's office at Level 2, 12 Moore Street, Civic, and from its website at www.elections.act.gov.au.

Objections will be considered by the Augmented ACT Electoral Commission.   The Augmented ACT Electoral Commission consists of the Electoral Commission's Chairperson, Mr Roger Beale, the Electoral Commissioner, Mr Phillip Green, the Electoral Commission's Member, Dr Christabel Young, the Chief Planning Executive, ACT Planning and Land Authority, Mr Neil Savery, the acting Commissioner for Surveys, Mr Bill Hirst, and the Regional Director, ACT Office, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Ms Karen Macdonald.  The Augmented ACT Electoral Commission may hold public hearings into objections to its proposed redistribution.

Canberra, 26 July 2007

Further information:
Electoral Commissioner, Phil Green, (02) 6205 0033 (w).
ACT Electoral Commission
Level 2, 12 Moore St, Canberra City ACT
Phone (02) 6205 0033, Fax (02) 6205 0382
Email elections@act.gov.au
Homepage: www.elections.act.gov.au 

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