Shire of Pingelly raises concerns over Electoral Boundary Review

The Shire of Pingelly has raised concerns over the WA Electoral Distribution Commission’s recent Electoral Boundary Review. The majority of WA’s 59 electoral districts are in metropolitan areas and the State’s electoral boundaries are regularly reviewed and adjusted to reflect changes in electorate populations. WA currently has 16 regional seats. In a submission to a proposal made to WA Parliament that could that see a reduction in the number of regional electorates the Shire of Pingelly said that “the erosion of regional representation is a loss to the entirety of WA”. “How Parliament put it across is that there is a legal threshold for population and a number of areas are approaching that threshhold with a few being over it,” Shire of Pingelly CEO Andrew Dover said. “Even though that might be true there are a lot of other factors that should be considered.” As WA’s regional population changes and metropolitan elector numbers increase the fear for the Shire is that the regional voice will be lost and issues relating to health care, housing, economic development and education in country areas will go unheard. The Shire’s submission said that less and larger regional WA electorates will be unable to adequately service regional communities and that due to the Wheatbelt’s drive-in, drive-out workforce electoral data may not reveal the reality of country town needs. “If people are on the electoral roll in the town they work in that’s great,” Mr Dover said. “But if they’re enrolled in the city then city numbers are boosted and city issues become over-represented.” In its submission to the Electoral Boundary Review the Shire of Pingelly said that the 16 regional electorates should remain or be increased to ensure fair representation. It also said that rather than an electoral rebalance taking place at a detriment to regional communities, legislative limits should be reviewed by the WA Legislative Assembly.