Labor, Liberal and the Greens are all happy with the new electoral boundaries for Canberra's parliament, with none of the parties lodging objections in the second round of consultation, closing on Tuesday.
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The new carve-up is the most radical in the ACT's history, replacing the existing three electorates with five electorates for the next election in 2016. Each electorate will elect five politicians, for a total of 25 rather than the current 17.
Fifty-six people made submissions last year on where the new boundaries should be drawn and what they should be called. In March, the Electoral Commission released its proposed new boundaries, rejecting the more fanciful suggestions on names such as one idea to name the electorates after the Planeteers from Captain Planet, and opting instead for Aboriginal names connected to the landscape.
The new boundaries fit comfortably into the home suburbs of the sitting Labor Assembly members, but have meant the Belconnen suburbs of Liberals Vicki Dunne and Alistair Coe are moved into the new Gungahlin electorate, leaving the pair facing decisions on where to live and where to stand next year.
Mrs Dunne lives in Evatt and Mr Coe in Giralang. Three other Belconnen suburbs – McKellar, Lawson and Kaleen – will also become part of Yerrabi.
Murrumbidgee
The central electorate, based on the inner north and inner south, is to be called Kurrajong. The Belconnen electorate keeps its name, Ginninderra, and the Tuggeranong electorate stays Brindabella.
The redistribution means Jeremy Hanson and Giulia Jones (Liberal), and Simon Corbell (Labor) no longer live in the central electorate but in the new Weston electorate. The only sitting members left in the central electorate are Chief Minister Andrew Barr, the Liberals' Steve Doszpot, and the Greens' Shane Rattenbury.
With objections closing on Tuesday, Labor, Liberal and the Greens have all confirmed they are satisfied with the proposal and not lodging objections.
The augmented commission is made up of the redistribution committee – Mr Green, ACT Planning and Land Authority Dorte Ekelund, ACT Surveyor-General Jeffrey Brown, and the ACT director of the Australian Bureau of Statistics Cassandra Gligora – and two extra members, commission chairman
The smoothness of the redistribution so far is in contrast to the previous redistribution in 2011, when the commission made two radically different proposals. After Gungahlin residents objected strongly to a proposal to split the suburb, the commission suggested combining Gungahlin and Belconnen into one large seven-member electorate, and shrinking Molonglo to a five-member electorate. The idea was eventually abandoned.
This time, there is no seven-member electorate, with all electorates the same size.
Objections can be lodged with the ACT Electoral Commission.
