The new third ACT Federal electorate is to be called Namadgi, the ACT redistribution committee proposed yesterday.
The seat will take in the whole of Tuggeranong, the Woden suburbs of Chifley, Farrer, Isaacs, Mawson, Pearce and Torrens and rural ACT to the south.
Canberra became entitled to a third seat shortly after the last election. It went into the election with the two largest federal seats, Canberra and Fraser. Fraser remains the northern seat. Canberra is now the central seat.
Fraser embraces the whole of Belconnen, Gungahlin, Hall and Jervis Bay.
Canberra embraces the whole of North and South Canberra (Burley Griffin Canberra), Weston Creek, the Woden suburbs of Curtin, Garran, Lyons, O’Malley and Phillip.
The Electoral Act requires that voter-equality requirements be put ahead of community-of-interest requirements, so it woudl have been impossible for the commissioners to split the ACT exactly along township lines. This was also the experience those who drew up the ACT Legislative Assembly boundaries.
The committee took into account the expected larger population growth of Gungahlin so that the seats will be very close in population in 1998. (see table). The committee members are electoral commissioner Brian Cox, ACT returning officer Michael Clancy, acting surveyor-general Doug White and Moira Scollay.
Objections to the names and boundaries can be made up to July 27. Objections will be considered by the augmented Electoral Commission _ the redistribution committee plus Trevor Morling, QC, and statistician Ian Castles.
All three seats, on 1993 figures, are safe Labor seats. Canberra is likely to be less safe than the other two, however.
The sitting Member for Fraser, John Langmore, has said he would move to the seat of Canberra, leaving a pre-selection tussle for Fraser, one of the leading contenders for which is David Wedgewood, a senior adviser to Chief Minister Rosemary Follett. Mr Langmore lives in Fraser, but his electorate office is in what would become the seat of Canberra.
The Member for Canberra, Ros Kelly, will move to Namadgi, which takes in much of the old Canberra electorate. Her electorate office is in Namadgi and she has long taken up the cause of Tuggeranong.
While she was in the ministry Mrs Kelly, in the Right faction, faced no pre-selection worries. Out of the ministry, though, the Left, which is very strong in nearly all parts of the ACT, may make a challenge.
Mrs Kelly has stated she will stand at the next election.
On the Liberal side, it is unlikely anyone will see the new seat as an opportunity for a Federal political career. Standing for it is more likely to be an act of apprenticeship.
The ACT was held by an independent from 1949-51, by Labor Jim Fraser from 1951-70, Kep Enderby till 1974 when a second seat was created, named after Jim Fraser.
The Liberals John Haslem held Canberra between 1975 and 1980, otherwise both seats have been Labor.
The seats do not follow the same boundaries as the three electorates for the ACT Legislative Assembly because of population requirements.
The ACT seats have to provide for one seven-member electorate and two five-member ones. However, there is some rough continuity. Fraser and Ginninderra both embrace Belconnen; Namadgi and Brindabella take in Tuggeranong and Canberra and Molonglo take in Burley Griffin Canberra.
With the new boundaries the three seats are likely to be among the smallest in Australia.