Boundary changes 'woeful': ALP

THE Labor Party has launched a scathing attack on the Australian Electoral Commission over its draft redistribution of the electoral boundaries in NSW, saying it was "woeful" and that the AEC had "misunderstood its obligations with respect to discharging its duties".

Even though commentators say the redistribution is largely favourable to the ALP, NSW Labor secretary Matt Thistlewaite was critical in his objections submission yesterday, saying: "The redistribution committee on any reasonable measure have poorly fulfilled the community-of-interest criteria of the Commonwealth Electoral Act.

"The only way to correct such woeful mistakes," he said, "would require drastic changes to the boundaries that would virtually lead to the entire state of NSW needing to be redrawn."

The draft redistribution published by the AEC last month abolished the safe Labor seat of Reid and cut the margin in the Labor seat of Macquarie from 7per cent to 0.1 per cent. But three marginal Liberal-held seats - Greenway, Gilmore and Macarthur - are now notionally Labor, and a further two - Hughes and Patterson - had margins reduced. The safe Nationals-held seat of Calare had its margin cut from 12.1 per cent to just 1.2 per cent.

NSW Nationals state director Ben Franklin said Labor was deliberately putting pressure on the AEC. "This is a bully-boy attempt to get their own way," he said. "Labor did quite well out of the redistribution."

ABC election analyst Antony Green agreed, saying: "I would have thought Labor should be generally happy, although it will make life a little tougher for some sitting members."

Green praised the quality of the redistribution, sentiments echoed by political analyst Malcolm Mackerras, who said in his submission to the AEC: "That was a very good proposal you have made to redistribute NSW."

Despite Labor's strong rhetoric, it only sought modest amendments to the boundaries for the Macarthur and Eden Monaro electorates, both of which would make the margins more favourable to Labor.

The Liberal Party's objections submission attempts to improve its margins in the seats of Hughes, Patterson and Gilmore, but is silent on Greenway and Macarthur.

Frontbench Liberal MP for Greenway Louise Markus refused to be drawn on why her party did not propose changes to improve her now notionally Labor seat, but it is understood she lobbied for it to do so.

Liberal MP for Macarthur Pat Farmer said: "Obviously it would have been fantastic if we had tried to get the original boundaries back, but that's a matter for the machine. What can I do?"

The redistribution in NSW follows redistributions in Queensland and Western Australia, each of which favoured the Labor Party by turning Liberal-held electorates into notional Labor ones.