Electoral boundary redistributions are not something that normally fire up the emotions, but we are asking Gungahlin residents to get involved in this one to help stop further splitting of Gungahlin suburbs into a second ACT electorate. 

Currently all of Gungahlin is in the Molonglo electorate except Nicholls, which is in Ginninderra. The ACT Electoral Commission is proposing that Palmerston and Crace are also carved off into Ginninderra. They’ve also failed to address the long-standing problem of the Molonglo electorate sprawling from almost Tuggeranong to the northern ACT border, leaving us in the north represented by MLAs some of whom we seldom ever see.

The legislation requires the Electoral Commission to “duly consider:

Our argument is that for too long, they’ve paid attention to the last two of these points, to the exclusion of the first three points – to the detriment of good representation for the Gungahlin community.

GCC has proposed that all of Belconnen and Gungahlin are combined into one seven-member electorate. The electorates would then essentially be Ginninderra with seven members across the north, Molonglo with five members across the central areas, and Brindabella with five members covering the south and Weston Creek. This would also set the electorates up to cater for future growth with minimal further changes.

You can help us achieve this by lodging your support for the GCC proposal to the Electoral Commission by 2 June. A simple email is all that is needed, which you can send to elections@act.gov.au. More information on the process, including our full submission is at www.bit.ly/act2011election.