House debates

Monday, 26 October 2009

Constituency Statements

Farrer Electorate: Electoral Redistribution

4:19 pm

Photo of Sussan LeySussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker—you are always nice. I would like to speak today on the electoral redistribution in New South Wales, the final announcement around which was made by the boundaries commission last Friday, and the effect that that redistribution has on my electorate of Farrer. I say at the outset that I know that redistributions are difficult periods for members who may lose parts of their electorates that are very important to them or parts of their electorates where they live, or—can I put it this way—the numbers may not quite work in their favour so well post redistribution and they may have to look at the very real possibility of exiting parliament. So I feel for my colleagues on both sides of the House after this redistribution in New South Wales. My circumstances are that the electorate of Farrer has become larger by 50,000 square kilometres and approximately 5,500 new voters in the local government area of the shire of Central Darling, previously ably represented by my colleague the member for Parkes.

I think it is common sense for the whole of the Central Darling Shire to be moved into the same electorate. As it stands, part of that shire—the township of Menindee and the Menindee Lakes, because of their close relationship with Broken Hill—is in the electorate and the rest of the shire is outside of it. After this redistribution, the entire Central Darling Shire and the unincorporated area of western New South Wales, which is a very significant part of the Western Division, will be in the electorate of Farrer. I am absolutely delighted. I know that people assume that when one’s electorate gets larger and the distances you have to travel are more substantial it is not always a good thing. From my point of view, I love the back country; I love representing the people of the far west. They are, in every sense of the word, good people. My only request of them is that when they have problems they contact me more frequently than they do. They would see a lot of that contact as complaining or raising issues that they could probably deal with themselves. I want them to realise that I am here to look after their interests, whatever they may be.

I have been asked about what I think this redistribution means for rural representation. While, as I said, I am happy with my personal circumstances, I recognise that by losing a seat in New South Wales we drop another rural representative in the federal parliament. I am not suggesting that we should or could go to a gerrymander situation. In fact, having thoroughly investigated the constitutions of both the states and the federal government, it is not possible for us to do that. But it is very sad that we have dropped to 48 seats in New South Wales. I am told by those who study the numbers that this may well occur again at the next federal election, where we could drop to 47. That is not a good thing for rural representation in this parliament. Although those of us who represent rural Australia work very hard, we sometimes fight to have our arguments heard. This means we will have to fight even harder.