Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian Electoral Commission has just announced it's considering renaming my electorate of Corangamite, ahead of the next election. While I love being the member for Corangamite, I wholeheartedly believe that this is the right decision. Corangamite take its name from Lake Corangamite. The name is from the Gulidjan word 'koraiyn', meaning bitter or salty. But I am neither bitter nor salty about this decision to rename the electorate! Simply put, the name 'Corangamite' needs to change. We have 151 electorates in this place. Only 17 are named after a woman. The number of electorates named after a First Nations person is even smaller—only seven. We have more electorates named after former prime ministers than we do women.

That's why I'm proud the AEC is recommending Corangamite be renamed after Margaret Tucker, a Yorta Yorta woman. Margaret was one of Australia's earliest female Aboriginal activists. She was the first woman appointed to the Victorian Aborigines Welfare Board and she was also one of the first inductees to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women, in 2001.

As a nation we can only heal by acknowledging our past. I can only hope that renaming our electorates to honour the history, leadership and sacrifice of our First Nations leaders will put us on the much-overdue path to a First Nations Voice to parliament and makarrata.