Martin Pakula’s seat scrapped in electoral boundary shake-up

Major Events Minister Martin Pakula has lost his seat after a major redraw of the political map resulted in the electorate of Keysborough being scrapped.

A reshaped political map has cost Major Events Minister Martin Pakula his seat, with the electorate of Keysborough abolished ahead of the 2022 election.

The Electoral Boundaries Commission on Thursday released its final ruling on the next Victorian parliament.

The release of new seat boundaries will kick off months of preselection battles across the state, with parties also working to tee up swaps for MPs no longer living in their electorate.

In a major shake-up, Melbourne’s growing outer suburbs will have more MPs to represent them while others in the eastern suburbs have been removed.

Martin Pakula. Picture: Sarah Matray

Laverton, Greenvale, Berwick and Pakenham are among the new seats which will most dramatically alter the political map.

But the biggest change will be for Mr Pakula, whose entire seat has been abolished to allow the expansion of neighbouring areas.

Work is now under way to find a solution that will allow the minister to contest the 2022 poll.

It came as former Hawthorn MP John Pesutto confirmed he will attempt to win back his former electorate from Labor next year.

In its final report, the EBC abandoned some contentious boundary changes proposed earlier in the year.

Health Minister Martin Foley’s electorate of Albert Park will no longer be adjusted to remove the suburb of St Kilda.

There had been fears Mr Foley’s margin of 13.1 per cent would be slashed if the suburb was moved over to Prahran, now held by the Greens.

Another plan to have one electorate cover the entire urban area of Ballarat was also abandoned.

The boundary changes will impact more than 127,000 voters.

Seats have been adjusted so that the population is spread evenly across each and Victorians given fair representation, with an average of 48,625 people per electorate.