KI boundary change labelled 'crazy' by local member

An examination of SA's 47 electoral districts occurs every four years to maintain an even distribution of voters, and is designed to ensure the party with the majority of votes at a general election is able to form government.

Last week, the Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission received eight proposals for consideration, including submissions from the Australian Labor Party, the Liberal Party and Australian Democrats.

But it was a submission by Liberal Member for Stuart Dan van Holst Pellekaan that proposes moving Kangaroo Island from the electorate of Mawson to the Eyre Peninsula seat of Flinders that has attracted attention.

Mr van Holst Pellekaan said the move would help address the population decline in the three electorates of Flinders, Giles and Stuart and "result in the fewest changes necessary for the people and communities in these electorates".

He expected the changes to also have "minimal impact upon the people of KI".

"KI is its own intact community, and not particularly affected by which other off-island communities share the same electorate," the submission said.

Mr van Holst Pellekaan wouldn't comment further to Stock Journal, except to say his focus was "on what's best for the people I represent".

2018: Grey, Barker to grow under proposed boundary changes

But KI mayor Michael Pengilly said the last time KI was moved to the seat of Flinders in 1993, it turned into a "disaster".

"It was impossible for the member (Liz Penfold) to service KI when her electorate was the West Coast," he said.

"It is not uncommon for a member to oppose his party's proposal in a bid to protect their own electorate, but it's disappointing he (Mr van Holst Pellekaan) has had absolutely no consultation with anyone on KI, not with the local Liberal branch or the council."

Mr Pengilly said if there was to be any change, KI should be aligned with the "more rural" seat of Finniss, which he once held.

Member for Mawson Leon Bignell has also labelled the proposal "absolutely crazy".

"It's a 10.5-hour drive for the local MP from Port Lincoln or Ceduna to Cape Jervis, plus the ferry time, and you drive through about 14 or 15 electorates to get there - it makes no sense," he said.

"Unless you have a commercial flight or a charter, there is no connection between these two parts of SA.

"It's also an insult to the people of KI, who have been through enough with the bushfires and coronavirus, to try and use them as political pawns just to make the numbers in your own electorate bigger - it's ludicrous."

Mr Bignell said KI needed to remain in the same seat as Cape Jervis because that is what connected it to the mainland.

Member for Flinders Peter Treloar understood Mr van Holst Pellekaan's proposal to keep his electorate relatively unchanged, particularly when his seat of Flinders fell below its voter quota.

"In Flinders, we are a bit constrained by the WA border and coastline so any changes have a knock-on effect obviously," he said.

"The challenge is for the electoral commission is to try and find boundaries that retain a community of interest, but ensure the population is within the quota."

Mr Treloar was more concerned about the Labor Party's proposal to move a country seat - most likely Flinders, Giles, Stuart, Frome or Chaffey - to a more "northern metropolitan area of Adelaide".

"I would definitely be opposed to that because it is important country people get suitable representation," he said.

The Labor proposal aimed to "address the problem of significantly under quota regional electorates".

But Liberal Party state director Sascha Meldrum said she found Labor's submission "unusual" as it used population data from February 2020, which the Liberal submission also used but had resulted in minimal changes to boundaries.

"We have come up with a detailed submission based on that data which proposes minimal change, which I think is in the best interests of the community," she said.

The EDBC is holding a hearing on May 18 where parties that made submissions can provide further oral representations on any proposed redistributions.