The new Victorian seat, which is proposed to be named after Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, looks set to be created in Melbourne’s north-west to keep pace with the area’s soaring population.

Fraser will take in a large part of Mr Shorten’s Maribyrnong electorate, which he holds with a margin of more than 12 per cent, cutting the opposition’s notional advantage there to about 10 per cent.

But Fraser is anticipated to be a very safe Labor seat with a electoral margin approaching 20 per cent, based on voting patterns from the most recent election.

The proposed redistribution, which has not been finalised yet, might deliver Labor up to three more seats in Parliament including Fraser, another new seat in Canberra and the Frankston-based seat of Dunkley, currently held by the Liberals, which would see an influx of voters from the next-door Labor stronghold of Isaacs.

Elsewhere, the Greens are not happy at the prospect of large numbers of their voters in the Labor seat of Batman, which Greens want to win, being moved across the electoral boundary into Melbourne, which they already hold.

Responding to reports on Wednesday that he was being urged to jump electorates at the next election, Mr Shorten did not rule out the move.

“Every six years the Electoral Commission redraws the lines on the map,” he told Perth radio station 6PR

“The Electoral Commission has cut my seat in half.

“I like the voters on both sides of my seat; we’ll wait and see what the final maps look like.

“Tell you what I am interested in, I’m interested in making sure the Labor gets more votes everywhere and we’ll do that by being fair dinkum.”

A change for the leader would require a deal with Victorian Labor’s powerful factions with the Socialist Left outfit claiming ownership of the new seat under the factions’ complex “stability pact”.

Maribyrnong belongs to Mr Shorten’s right faction, under the pact, and it is unlikely the Socialist Left grouping would hand over the plum new Fraser electorate without getting something in return.