Hume electoral changes to strengthen Liberals

By Victoria Kelly-Clark

OPINION: Far-reaching changes were proposed last week to the federal electoral boundaries which will remove Yass from the seat of Hume and place it into the Eden-Monaro electorate.

Revealing the proposed redraw on Friday, the Australian Electoral Commission sided with the proposals from the National and Liberal parties which nominated the Labor seat of Hunter for removal.

Following the loss of the NSW seat of Hunter in the House of Representatives, Yass, Tumbarumba and Tumut will now be part of the newly proposed Eden-Monaro district replacing those parts of the south coast, such as Batemans Bay and Moruya, which Eden –Monaro will lose to the seat of Gilmore.

A total of 25,170 voters across the Hume and Riverina districts will be affected; it is believed that the proposed changes will alter the bellwether nature of Eden-Monaro.

According to The Australian National University’s Emeritus Professor John Warhurst, the changes are likely to strengthen the position of the Liberal sitting member for Eden–Monaro, Peter Hendry, in the short term.

Professor Warhurst believed that the change, “will make it harder for the Labor Party in the short-run”.

“But I think it will continue to be a most interesting marginal electorate, which includes a great variety of the sorts of voters from around the nation.”

Professor Warhurst went on to say that eventually Eden-Monaro will continue to have a marginal status and will always attract the interest of the major parties.

The real question is, if the proposed changes go through, what will Peter Hendry, with his rise to the junior ministry as Assistant Minister for Productivity, bring to the Yass region?

Individuals and organisations are now able to lodge objections to the Redistribution Committee’s proposed electoral names and boundaries until November, when there will be a second proposal released.

Written objections must be lodged no later than 6pm Friday, November 13 2015.

– With sources.

View Scoop’s story on it here.