THE final make-up of the ACT Legislative Assembly electoral boundaries for the 2016 election has been announced today by the ACT Electoral Commissioner Phillip Green.
“The Augmented ACT Electoral Commission has decided to accept the electoral boundaries proposed by the ACT Redistribution Committee,” Phillip said.
“The Augmented Commission decided that it would not uphold any of the objections to the proposed redistribution of the ACT’s electoral boundaries, as set out in its statement of reasons published today.
The final electorates are:
- Brindabella, a 5-Member electorate comprising the district of Tuggeranong (excluding the suburb of Kambah) and the districts of Booth, Cotter River, Paddys River, Rendezvous Creek, Tennent and Mount Clear;
- Ginninderra, a 5-Member electorate comprising the district of Belconnen (excluding the suburbs of Evatt, Giralang, Kaleen, Lawson and McKellar);
- Kurrajong, a 5-Member electorate comprising the districts of Canberra Central, Jerrabomberra (including the suburb of Hume), Kowen and Majura;
- Murrumbidgee, a 5-Member electorate comprising the districts of Molonglo Valley, Weston Creek, Woden Valley, Coree (including the village of Uriarra) and Stromlo, and the Tuggeranong suburb of Kambah; and
- Yerrabi, a 5-Member electorate comprising the districts of Gungahlin and Hall, and the Belconnen suburbs of Evatt, Giralang, Kaleen, Lawson and McKellar.
The ACT Legislative Assembly’s electoral boundaries have been redrawn in preparation for the 15 October 2016 election. For the first time, the ACT has been divided into 5 electorates each returning 5 Members to the Legislative Assembly.
The Redistribution Committee published a proposed redistribution of the ACT into 5 electorates on 31 March 2015 and invited objections to the proposal by 28 April 2015.
Nine objections to the proposal were received by the Augmented Commission. One objection was subsequently withdrawn and two late submissions were also received.
“The objections and the late submissions were carefully considered by the Augmented Commission. The Augmented Commission decided that the objections did not raise any substantive new matters that had not already been addressed by the Redistribution Committee in its consideration of the public suggestions and comments. Accordingly the Augmented Commission did not consider that it was necessary to hold a public hearing into the objections,” Philip said.
The Augmented Commission has today published a detailed statement of reasons for its decision to accept the proposed boundaries unchanged, including an examination of each of the objections to the proposed boundaries. The statement of reasons and the final map of the new boundaries is available online at elections.act.gov.au and from the office of the ACT Electoral Commission.
As the Augmented Commission has accepted the proposal of the Redistribution Committee without change, there are no further opportunities for public objections. The Augmented Commission will formally complete the redistribution process in the near future by publication of a notifiable instrument of determination under section 35 of the Electoral Act and publication of a report concerning the redistribution.
The Augmented Commission comprises the members of the ACT Electoral Commission (Chairperson, Mr Roger Beale AO; Electoral Commissioner, Mr Phillip Green; and Commission Member, Ms Dawn Casey) and members of the Redistribution Committee (the Chief Planning Executive, ACT Planning and Land Authority (Ms Dorte Ekelund), the Surveyor-General (Mr Jeffrey Brown) and the Regional Director, ACT Office, Australian Bureau of Statistics (Ms Cassandra Gligora)).
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