NSW State Redistribution – Draft Electoral Boundaries

UPDATE – the final boundaries determination by the Redistribution Panel was published on 26 August 2021. My analysis of the new boundaries can be found in my updated post here.

The NSW Electoral Districts Redistribution Panel released draft state electoral boundaries on Monday, bringing enrolments for all 93 electorates back within the permitted variations from state average.

The major change brought about by the new boundaries is the abolition of Lakemba, an ultra-safe Labor seat in Sydney’s inner south-west, and the creation of a new and marginal Labor seat called Leppington on Sydney’s south-west fringe. The new boundaries for the southern Sydney Liberal seat of Heathcote transform it into a marginal Labor seat, and the margins in several other Liberal held seats have also been cut.

Update – my analysis of the new boundaries has been published by the NSW Parliamentary Library. You can find it at this link.

NSW Electoral boundaries are re-drawn after every second election. All re-drawn districts must have a current enrolment within 10% of the state average, 57,193, at the determination date on 23 March 2020. All districts must also have a projected enrolment for April 2023, one month after the next election, that is within 10% of the projected quota at that date, 59,244.

Ahead of the 2014 redistribution, the O’Farrell government increased the tolerance of the projected enrolment quota from 3% to 10%, giving redistribution commissioners more room to pay attention to community of interest. The current redistribution panel has made greater use of the permitted variation, surprising most observers by making fewer changes to boundaries than expected, especially in rural electorates.

There are very few changes to electorates outside of the Sydney metropolitan area. The more significant boundary changes are in Sydney, with a cascading shift of boundaries in middle-distance suburbs to deal with rapid population growth on Sydney’s north-west and south-west fringes.

The major change has been the abolition of the ultra-safe Labor seat of Lakemba (ALP 22.4%) in Sydney’s inner south-west. It is held by Labor frontbencher Jihad Dib, and his seat has essentially become the re-drawn seat of Bankstown, held by another Labor frontbencher in Tania Mihailuk.

The abolition of Lakemba has created a cascade of changes across south-west Sydney, eventually leaving room for a new and marginal Labor seat called Leppington (ALP 1.5%) to be created in the greenfield suburbs sprouting on Sydney’s south-west fringe.

Another Labor frontbencher, former Leadership aspirant Chris Minns, has the margin in his southern Sydney seat of Kogarah slashed from 1.8% to just 0.1%.

The Liberal MP for Heathcote, Lee Evans, faces a serious challenge in his re-drawn seat. It has shed Liberal voting territory in the Sutherland Shire and been pushed south into the working class suburbs of the northern Illawarra. His Liberal margin of 5.0% has been replaced by a notional Labor margin of 1.7%.

Several other Liberal MPs have had their margins cut, the most prominent being government frontbencher Stuart Ayres in Penrith. Oatley, Parramatta and the National held seat of Upper Hunter have also had their margins reduced.

There are only minor changes to seats held by Greens, Independents and Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party.

Comments on the proposed boundaries are now open and details of the redistribution and maps of all proposed districts can be found on the NSW Electoral Commission’s website.

The table below sets out the new and old margins in districts where the new boundaries have had the most political impact. Other electorates have had only minor changes to their margins.

I’m currently preparing a publication on the new boundaries and will update this post with an electoral pendulum later this week.

Summary of Major Changes