Parkes MP Mark Coulton already racks up thousands of kilometres a year servicing his electorate.
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But his task is set to become a whole lot bigger with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) yesterday releasing a draft of its proposed electoral boundary changes.
Under the proposal the NSW federal seat of Reid will be abolished, while the seat of Lowe will be renamed McMahon.
The AEC redistribution committee decided to supplement divisions with low enrolment with areas with higher enrolment numbers.
As a result the committee proposes the abolition of the existing electorate of Reid, which covers western Sydney suburbs including Westmead, Homebush Bay, Dundas and Regents Park.
The seat has been held by Labor’s Laurie Ferguson since 1990.
Because of the changes to the adjoining seat of Lowe, the committee proposes renaming it McMahon after the late prime minister Sir William McMahon.
Parkes, which is estimated to already cover an area of about 107,000 square kilometres, could triple in size.
Under the proposed redistribution the seat of Parkes will lose Gunnedah and the entire Mid-Western Regional LGA, which includes the towns of Mudgee, Gulgong, Rylstone and Kandos.
The expansion of the electorate’s boundaries will see it take in much of the current seat of Calare including the towns of Bourke, Brewarrina, Parkes, Forbes, Narromine, Nyngan, Condobolin, Warren, Trangie and Cobar.
While all but four of the State’s seats have been re-drawn in the
proposed draft, the seat of Parkes will undergo the most significant shift with the new boundary expected to increase in size from 107,000 square kilometres to about 300,000 square kilometres.
The area is equivalent to the combined size of Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Austria and Switzerland.
Mr Coulton said the decision to abolish the western Sydney seat of Reid was a win for the people of NSW.
“It is very heartening to see that following the abolition of the seat of Gwydir in the last redistribution that no regional seat has been abolished this time around,” he said.
“The potential loss of another western seat was something that the Nationals and I were very much opposed to, so while this proposal may not be perfect it is a great relief to see that western NSW will retain its voice in Federal Parliament.”
Any objections to the proposed changes must be sent in writing to the AEC no later than 6pm on September 4.
