Proposal to merge electorates of Gorton, Fraser and Maribyrnong into two, ‘resulting in abolition of Maribyrnong’

In a move to scrap Bill Shorten’s seat of Maribyrnong, by redrawing federal electorates, the Victorian Liberals have botched their run with a minutes-late AEC submission.

Bill Shorten’s seat of Maribyrnong would be scrapped under a radical redrawing of federal electorates proposed by the Victorian Liberals.

Victoria is set to lose at least one seat, taking it to 38 electorates, at the next federal election due to population declines.

In a submission to the Australian Electoral Commission, the Liberals propose to merge the three electorates of Gorton, Fraser, and Maribyrnong into two, “resulting in the abolition of Maribyrnong”.

But in an embarrassing bungle, the Herald Sun can reveal that the Liberal Party failed to get their submission in to the AEC by the 6pm deadline.

The document was sent at 6.03pm due to an error with one of the attachments.

This means it will now be published as a comment instead of a submission.

The Victorian branch on Monday sought an assurance that its 124-page document would still be considered.

Senior AEC officials are understood to have told the party it would be treated the same as a submission despite missing the cut off.

Bill Shorten during question time at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman

Maribyrnong is held by former Labor leader and NDIS Minister Bill Shorten.

The Opposition claim the western suburbs are best placed to lose a division because it has the largest collection of seats with minimum quotas.

It also recommends that the boundaries of Labor MP Josh Burns’ seat of Macnamara should cross the Yarra to take in Southbank, Docklands and the CBD “to unite a modern community of interest into one Division, and change its name to become the Division of Melbourne”.

It says the current electorate of Melbourne, held by Greens leader Adam Bandt, should move north and be renamed Peacock in honour of Lady Millie Peacock, the first woman elected to the Victorian parliament.

The moves would cause serious disruption to Labor and the Greens, while the six seats held by the Liberals would remain unscathed.

The submission acknowledged that an alternative proposal may axe a seat in the “east or east-south of Melbourne”.

But it claimed the former meant an electorate would have to cross the Yarra River between the east of the CBD and Warrandyte – putting communities physically divided by the river and “with significant community differences into single electorates”.

The party stated there was “no basis” for abolishing any of the rural and regional electorates of Wannon, Mallee, Nicholls, Indi and Gippsland.

The submission calls for the Western Ring Rd to become a significant electoral boundary throughout the western and northern suburbs for the Labor electorates of Fraser, Calwell, Scullin, Wills and Cooper.

Nepean Highway would also be used as a physical boundary between Goldstein and Isaacs, but the Maribyrnong River would no longer be used as a boundary for Fraser.

The Liberals warn that a fourth successive redistribution is likely, with Victoria likely to be entitled to a 39th seat in three years time.

The redistribution prior to the 2019 election created the electorate of Fraser, while the seat of Hawke was created ahead of the 2022 election. Both are held by Labor.

Feedback to suggestions will remain open until December 8, with the proposed redistribution report due to be released in the second quarter of 2024.