Shake-up for MPs as Victorian electoral boundaries are redrawn

UPDATE: A SENIOR Liberal minister's seat has been abolished and a third of Victorian voters will change electorates as new boundaries are drawn up.

Senior Liberal minister Mary Wooldridge's Doncaster seat will not exist under the new boundaries.

A SENIOR Liberal minister's seat has been abolished and more than one million Victorian voters will change electorates under new boundaries released today.

The new electoral districts, released ahead of next year's state election, will see 15 existing districts abolished and replaced.

Senior Liberal minister Mary Wooldridge has lost her seat after her electorate of Doncaster was abolished.

Surrounding seats of Bulleen, Warrandyte and Ringwood will absorb votes in the area.

Other Coalition ministers who will be scrambling for a new electorate include Water Minister Peter Walsh, Minister for Major Projects and Manufacturing David Hodgett and Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Kim Wells.

Victorian electoral commissioner Warwick Gately said the last redivision was completed in 2000-2001 and in that time the number of voters had grown by about 500,000.

"In the course of this last 12 months 70,000 new electors have been added to the state electoral role, so this redivision brings every 88 of the districts back to an equality of about 41,400 electors," Mr Gately said.

"What was essentially eight metropolitan plus seven regional districts are now being recreated as nine metropolitan and six regional districts.

"There is significant growth in inner Melbourne and you've got to match that with a relative decline in the west and the north of regional Victoria."

Liberal Party state director Damien Mantach said the party was analysing the new boundaries and would have further discussions about preselections.

"In regards to those MPs whose seats have been abolished or dramatically redrawn, the Premier, state president, state director and the administrative committee of the party will have discussions with affected MPs to determine the best course of action in relation to preselections," Mr Mantach said.

He expected preselections would begin early next year and would be finalised "well before the election".

Deputy Premier and National Party leader Peter Ryan said the changes were "a disappointing outcome for country Victoria".

The change to the number of country and metropolitan seats saw one regional seat abolished, the Nationals seat of Rodney.

"That means one less voice in this Parliament on behalf of country Victorians and so it is therefore a disappointing result," Mr Ryan said.

"We're not happy with the result, but it is what it is and we'll now work within it."

Mr Ryan said the Nationals would have "a mature discussion" with the Liberal Party about the new boundaries and in which seats each party would field candidates.

The Nationals and Liberal Parties have previously agreed not to field candidates in seats where a sitting member was recontesting from either of the parties.

Mr Ryan expected the Nationals, Liberals and Labor would all field a candidate in the seat of Ripon, which is held by retiring Labor MP Joe Helper.

Nationals MP Paul Weller, who holds the abolished seat of Rodney, said he would continue to serve his constituents for the next 13 months but had not decided if he would look for a new seat to represent.

"We've got to wait for the dust to settle and we'll have a look at it, see what opportunities arise," Mr Weller said.

He lodged a submission that argued to retain the seat, which has been a voting district since 1856.

"The electoral boundaries commission made their decision even though there were a lot of good submissions come in from the people with concerns, they've made their decision so life moves on."

Other changes to the boundaries included the seat of Ringwood, which will take in thousands of new voters from five neighbouring districts.

A new seat of Murray Plains has been created, which will include more than 26,000 voters from the former seat of Rodney.

The Lower House seat of Lyndhurst, which was won by Labor MP Martin Pakula in a by-election this year, has been taken over by neighbouring seats Keysborough, Cranbourne and Dandenong.

The seat of Frankston, held by independent MP Geoff Shaw, has taken in an extra 3500 voters from Cranbourne and 740 from Carrum.