Australian Electoral Commission 2006 REDISTRIBUTION OF NEW SOUTH WALES INTO 49 ELECTORAL DIVISIONS Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 Section 75 © Commonwealth of Australia 2006 ISBN 0-9775002-3-3 This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the Commonwealth. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the Commonwealth Copyright Administration, Attorney General’s Department, Robert Garran Offices, National Circuit, Barton ACT 2600 or posted at http://www.ag.gov.au/cca Printed by Pirion, Fyshwick ACT CONTENTS PART 1 REDISTRIBUTION OF NEW SOUTH WALES INTO PAGE ELECTORAL DIVISIONS 1.1 Determination made by the augmented Electoral Commission for New South Wales 2 1.2 Reasons for the determination made by the augmented Electoral Commission for New South Wales 4 1.3 Statistical summary 15 1.4 Description of the method used to calculate the area of Electoral Divisions 18 1.5 General description of each Electoral Division 18 Appendix A Composition of the augmented Electoral Commission for New South Wales and the Redistribution Committee for New South Wales 88 Appendix B List of Public Objections lodged with the Australian Electoral Commission pursuant to Section 69(1) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 89 Appendix C List of Comments on Public Objections lodged with the Australian Electoral Commission pursuant to Section 69(3) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 115 Appendix D List of persons who appeared at the public inquiry into Public Objections held by the augmented Electoral Commission for New South Wales, Sydney, 24 August 2006 118 Appendix E List of persons who appeared at the public inquiry into Public Objections held by the augmented Electoral Commission for New South Wales, Narrabri, 119 25 August 2006 Appendix F Guidelines for the naming of Commonwealth Electoral Divisions 120 Appendix G Redistribution timetable 121 PART 2 ENCLOSURES Redistribution Statistics; Public Suggestions to the Redistribution Committee; Comments on Public Suggestions; Report – 2006 Proposed Redistribution of New South Wales into Electoral Divisions; Public Objections to the Proposed Redistribution; Comments on Public Objections to the Proposed Redistribution; Transcript Digital of the Inquiry into Public Objections; PDF maps of Electoral Versatile Divisions. Disc Composite maps showing the boundaries of the electoral Paper divisions for New South Wales as determined by the Maps augmented Electoral Commission. PART 1 REDISTRIBUTION OF NEW SOUTH WALES INTO 49 ELECTORAL DIVISIONS 22 November 2006 Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 Sections 73 and 74 1.1 DETERMINATION MADE BY THE AUGMENTED ELECTORAL COMMISSION FOR NEW SOUTH WALES Pursuant to section 73 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, the augmented Electoral Commission for New South Wales hereby determines that the names and boundaries of the Electoral Divisions into which New South Wales is to be distributed are as shown on the maps certified by the members of the augmented Electoral Commission for New South Wales and lodged in file number 06/1459 at the National Office of the Australian Electoral Commission in Canberra. These maps are numbered in the following sequence: NSW01/2006 Banks NSW26/2006 Lyne NSW02/2006 Barton NSW27/2006 Macarthur NSW03/2006 Bennelong NSW28/2006 Mackellar NSW04/2006 Berowra NSW29/2006 Macquarie NSW05/2006 Blaxland NSW30/2006 Mitchell NSW06/2006 Bradfield NSW31/2006 Newcastle NSW07/2006 Calare NSW32/2006 New England NSW08/2006 Charlton NSW33/2006 North Sydney NSW09/2006 Chifley NSW34/2006 Page NSW10/2006 Cook NSW35/2006 Parkes NSW11/2006 Cowper NSW36/2006 Parramatta NSW12/2006 Cunningham NSW37/2006 Paterson NSW13/2006 Dobell NSW38/2006 Prospect NSW14/2006 Eden-Monaro NSW39/2006 Reid NSW15/2006 Farrer NSW40/2006 Richmond NSW16/2006 Fowler NSW41/2006 Riverina NSW17/2006 Gilmore NSW42/2006 Robertson NSW18/2006 Grayndler NSW43/2006 Shortland NSW19/2006 Greenway NSW44/2006 Sydney NSW20/2006 Hughes NSW45/2006 Throsby NSW21/2006 Hume NSW46/2006 Warringah NSW22/2006 Hunter NSW47/2006 Watson NSW23/2006 Kingsford Smith NSW48/2006 Wentworth NSW24/2006 Lindsay NSW49/2006 Werriwa NSW25/2006 Lowe 2 The augmented Electoral Commission for New South Wales reached this determination on the basis that it determined the boundaries of the electoral divisions in New South Wales, and the names of those divisions, should be as proposed by the Redistribution Committee for New South Wales in its Report published on 30 June 2006, subject to the following changes: (i) the boundaries of Parkes, Calare, Farrer and Riverina have been revised so as to reduce the area of Parkes and so as to reflect communities of interest between Broken Hill, on the one hand, and the Unincorporated Far West of New South Wales and Menindee on the other; and between areas in the Riverina including the Murrumbidgee local government area; (ii) the boundaries of Paterson, Newcastle and Hunter have been revised to allow the return of Raymond Terrace to Paterson; (iii) the boundaries of Parramatta have been revised to bring more of the central business district and historic centre of the City of Parramatta into that division; (iv) the boundaries of the divisions of Sydney, Wentworth and Kingsford Smith have been revised in recognition of community of interest ties within those divisions; (v) the boundaries of Parramatta and Mitchell, of Macarthur and Hume, of Grayndler and Lowe, of Cowper and Page, of Cowper and Lyne, and of New England and Parkes, have been revised to provide better definition; (vi) other minor changes shown on the abovementioned maps have been made to the boundaries of Fowler and Werriwa, of Fowler and Prospect, and of Fowler and Macquarie. J C S Burchett QC Chairperson augmented Electoral Commission for New South Wales 3 1.2 REASONS FOR THE DETERMINATION MADE BY THE AUGMENTED ELECTORAL COMMISSION FOR NEW SOUTH WALES Representation of New South Wales in the House of Representatives 1. On 17 November 2005 the Electoral Commissioner made a determination of State and Territory entitlements to representation under section 48(1) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (the Act). By virtue of the determination, New South Wales is entitled to 49 members of the House of Representatives, one less than its previous entitlement. Direction for a redistribution of New South Wales electoral divisions 2. Section 59(2) of the Act provides that a redistribution shall be directed whenever a determination under section 48(1) of the Act results in an alteration of the number of members of the House of Representatives to be chosen in a State. Consequently, on 2 December 2005, the Australian Electoral Commission (the Electoral Commission) directed by notice published in the Gazette (S226 Friday 2 December 2005) that a redistribution was to commence in New South Wales. 3. At the end of 2 December 2005, the day determined by the Electoral Commission for the redistribution to begin, the number of electors enrolled for the State was 4 308 595. 4. Redistribution 2006 Statistics which show the electoral enrolment figures as at 2 December 2005 were made available on compact disc and on the Australian Electoral Commission website. In addition, copies were printed upon request at all New South Wales offices of the Australian Electoral Commission. The statistics were given at the following levels: Census Collector District (CCD) Statistical Local Area (SLA) Electoral Division State Quota 5. Under Section 65(2) of the Act, the Electoral Commissioner determined that the quota of electors for New South Wales was 87 931 ( 4 308 595 divided by 49 members). The permitted range of the margin of allowance of 10% below and above the quota would be 79 138 to 96 724. The Act does not permit any greater variation from the quota to be provided for in a redistribution. 4 Appointment of the Redistribution Committee for New South Wales 6. The next step in the process leading to a redistribution in New South Wales was the appointment under s.60 of the Act of a Redistribution Committee for the State. On 17 March 2006, this committee was appointed, its members being: Electoral Commissioner Mr Ian Campbell Australian Electoral Officer Mr David Farrell for New South Wales Surveyor-General of New South Wales Mr Warwick Watkins Auditor-General of New South Wales Mr Bob Sendt Redistribution Committee’s Proposed Redistribution 7. All preconditions having been met, the Redistribution Committee (the Committee) made a proposed redistribution of New South Wales under s.66 of the Act, stating its reasons in writing; caused the notice required by s.68(1)(c) of the Act to be published in the Gazette; and took the other steps required by s.68. Objections and Comments 8. A total of 1 989 Objections (although a substantial proportion of these were in the same or a similar form) was received, and as well 156 Comments on Objections were received. Augmented Electoral Commission 9. By s.70(1) of the Act there is established for the purposes of any such redistribution an augmented Electoral Commission for the relevant State or Territory. By virtue of s.70(2) the members of the augmented Electoral Commission for New South Wales (augmented Commission) are the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (Hon James Burchett QC); the member of the Electoral Commission other than the Chairperson and the Electoral Commissioner (Mr Dennis Trewin); and the persons previously mentioned who constituted the Committee. Public Inquiry 10. The augmented Commission held a public inquiry into the Objections in Sydney on 24 August 2006 and in Narrabri on 25 August 2006. Arguments were presented on these occasions by 24 persons (at Sydney), and a further 38 persons (at Narrabri), and have been carefully considered by the augmented Commission, together with all the objections and comments. For further details, see Appendices.