The introduction of the ‘Malapportionment’ voting system by the Hanlon Labor government in 1949, implemented with the 1950 state election, provided for the
increase in the Brisbane parliament, from 62 to 75 seats.
With the creation of 13 additional electorates, some 19 electorate names were retired and 32 new electorate names promulgated.
Callide was one of the newly created electorates.
In its first incarnation, Callide was inland, extending from north of Rockhampton, south to Taroom.
Through subsequent redistributions, Callide has undergone multiple and major boundary manipulations.
The starkest difference between the existing and proposed boundaries of Callide is those determined by the 1977 redistribution, locating the electorate north of Rockhampton, across the area that is now the coastal electorate of Keppel.
The 1991 redistribution, implemented with the 1992 State election, saw Callide shifted hundreds of kilometres south of its 1977 position, becoming an inland electorate and its southern boundary extended to the Western Downs.
Additionally, it acquired the North Burnett LGA of the Wide Bay/Burnett Region.
Further redistributions have seen Callide boundaries extended both south and east.
In its existing incarnation, Callide includes the northern third of the Western Downs LGA of the Darling Downs/South West Region, so as to extend south as far as the
township of Bell, which is, as the crow flies, about 150km WNW of the Brisbane CBD.
Additionally, much of its eastern area includes significant swaths of LGAs of the Wide Bay/Burnett Region.
While Callide continues to be identified as a Central Queensland electorate, more than half of its area lies within the Wide Bay/Burnett and the Darling Downs/South West Regions.
Over the term of the 2017 redistribution, Callide voter enrolment numbers have failed to keep pace with the statewide district increase, falling to almost -8 per cent below the state district average and are projected to fall to below -13 per cent by June 2032.
This situation, of course, needed to be remedied by the Commission.
However, the intrusion further into the LGAs of the Wide Bay/Burnett Region is an inappropriate remedy.
With the existing Callide electoral district encompassing Central Queensland, Wide Bay and Darling Downs/South West LGAs, together with the continuing decline of enrolled voter numbers with respect to the district average, significant Commission intervention was warranted.
However, the proposed redistribution decision to retain Callide and extend its southeastern boundary into the Wide Bay-Burnett Region LGAs of South Burnett, Gympie and Fraser Coast is problematic.
While a small southern area, including the townships of Bell and Jandowea, is ceded to the Warrego electorate, about 20 per cent of the area of the Callide electorate remains within the Western Downs LGA, which is part of the Darling Downs/South West Region.
In respect to the Wide Bay-Burnett Region, in addition to the whole of the North Burnett LGA and the area of the Bundaberg LGA, primarily west of the Bruce Highway,
Callide acquires an additional small northwestern area of the Bundaberg LGA, east of the Bruce Highway, as well as significant areas of the Fraser Coast, Gympie and South Burnett LGAs.
Accordingly, more than 30 per cent of the area of Callide will lie within the Wide Bay/Burnett Region.
Despite also acquiring the greater part of the Central Queensland Gladstone LGA, about 60 per cent of Callide will still comprise areas of Wide Bay/Burnett and Darling
Downs/South West Region LGAs, while it is likely that more than 60 per cent of its enrolled voters will reside in these areas.
It is also notable that the proposed changes will see the electorate of Burnett cede all Gladstone LGA areas to Callide, thus no longer will any Wide Bay/Burnett electorate extend into the Central Queensland Region.
The residents of Wide Bay-Burnett have a reasonable expectation that an identified Central Queensland electorate will not intrude so extensively into five of its six LGAs. It appears that successive redistribution commissions have given scant regard to community, economic, social, regional or other interests when determining the boundaries of Callide contrary to Sections 46.1 and 46.2 of the Electoral Act 1992.
As a result, the existing contorted boundaries of the Wide Bay-Burnett Electoral Area bear little resemblance to those of its Regional Area.
OBJECTIONS
1. Callide is designated as a Central Queensland Electoral Area electorate, though its existing boundary extends across extensive parts of two LGAs of the Wide Bay/Burnett Region and one LGA of the Darling Downs/South West Region. The proposed boundary exacerbates this situation with the acquisition of sections of three additional Wide Bay/Burnett Region LGAs, South Burnett, Gympie and Fraser Coast.
2. Wide Bay/Burnett Region and the Darling Downs/South West Region LGA areas will continue to make up near 60% of the total area and likely the same percentage of the enrolled voters of the Callide electorate.
3. The continued designation of Callide as a Central Queensland electorate is not sustainable.
It is reasonable that limited boundary adjustments be made to remedy enrolled voter deficiencies of an electorate of one Electoral Area with enrolled voters of an adjoining Electoral Area.
However, when the boundary overlay of an Electoral Area diverges to such an extent that it no longer represents several thousand residents of its regional area, it is an injustice.
The extent to which the Wide Bay/Burnett Electoral Area boundary has been tortured to sustain the enrolled voter numbers of the electorate of Callide as a means to prevent the abolition of a Central Queensland Electoral Area electorate has been unjust, but to perpetuate the action is unconscionable.
REXIT Australia Inc. considers the QRC continuing actions to impress additional Wide Bay/Burnett Area enrolled voters into the Central Queensland Electoral Area, specifically to prevent the abolition of one of its designated electorates, is contrary to Sections 46.1 and 46.2 of the Electoral Act 1992 and needs to be redressed.
– Bill Bates
President Rexit Australia Inc.
