General News
24 June, 2024
Changes proposed to the Parkes electorate
The Parkes electorate will once again grow in size with the addition of three new local government areas under a newly proposed redistribution for NSW.
On Friday, June 14, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) released its 2024 redistribution proposal for NSW. It detailed the Parkes electorate growing to include the Bland, Forbes, and Parkes local government areas, while losing the remainder of the Gwydir shire to the division of New England.
The irony of the proposed adjustment is with the upper half of Gwydir shire moving to the New England, if the current sitting federal member for Parkes Mark Coulton (who is a former Gwydir shire mayor) had intended to sit for the seat of Parkes and won at the polls, he would not have lived in the electorate he currently serves.
However, Mr Coulton was happy to see strong towns of Parkes, Forbes, and West Wyalong (Bland shire) added to the proposed new electorate area.
“Overall, the proposed redistribution is not a bad result for the electorate of Parkes – we’re gaining some strong towns in Parkes, Forbes, and West Wyalong which I’m sure will only add to this great electorate,” Mr Coulton said.
“I am sorry to see the upper half of the Gwydir shire, which includes my hometown of Warialda, move to the New England electorate.
“That means that once I retire at the next election, I will no longer live in the Parkes electorate which is personally disappointing, having represented this electorate for so long and been so invested in it.”
The Parkes electorate currently covers an area of 393,413 square kilometres, the largest in NSW, covering 49 per cent of the state. These changes will see it grow to 406,755 square kilometres.
The changes to the Parkes electorate have been made to accommodate low projected growth in voter numbers within the electorate.
Projected enrolment in the current division of Parkes (for April 10, 2028) was to be 109,528 electors, which is 15,557 less than the minimum number of projected voters required by the electoral act.
The new division will increase the projected enrolment for April 2028 to 128,178 people.
Mr Coulton said the release of the proposed redistribution will enable The Nationals in the Parkes electorate to set a date for preselection.
“The party will now get on with the job of selecting a candidate to contest the division of Parkes at the next election,” Mr Coulton said.
“I look forward to working with whoever is preselected over the coming months to help them get to know this wonderful electorate.”
The redistribution will see the number of members in the House of Representatives decrease from 47 to 46 in NSW, with the abolishment of the division of North Sydney.
This means the boundaries of each federal electoral division in the state had to be altered to accommodate this change.
