Morawa shire president Karen Chappel slams “unfair” creation of new Mid West super seat covering 24 councils

The creation of a sprawling Mid West electorate covering 24 councils has been labelled “unfair” and will leave the seat’s elected member with an “unbelievable” workload, according to Morawa shire president Karen Chappel. Ms Chappel – who is also the WA Local Government Association boss – slammed the proposed amalgamation of the existing seats of Moore and North West Central to create a single regional electorate stretching from Gingin to Coral Bay and east to Meekatharra and Sandstone. The change would leave two Nationals MPs – Opposition Leader Shane Love and recent entrant to Parliament Mem Beard – battling it out for a single seat. Draft boundaries published by the independent Electoral Distribution Commissioners this month propose the loss of a country seat to allow for the addition of a new electorate in Perth’s fast-growing south-eastern corridor. The changes have been prompted by North West Central’s low voting population, which is 11,021 compared to around 30,000 in most metropolitan seats. Even accounting for the Large District Allowance – which provides population bonuses to seats bigger than 100,000sqm in recognition of their remoteness – North West Central remains well outside the acceptable enrolment level. The commissioners have defended their draft boundaries by stating the planned Mid West electorate would cover half the physical area of North West Central while more than doubling population and create “a significantly more cohesive community of interest by virtue of a predominant primary production industry.” Surrounding country seats including Kalgoorlie, Pilbara, Kimberley and Central Wheatbelt would all grow in size to absorb parts of the existing seats of North West Central and Moore. Ms Chappel said Moore was “large enough” as it currently stood and the addition of big swathes of North West Central meant the new Mid West seat was unworkable. “I mean, how one person is going to be able to represent that is quite unreasonable,” she said. “The disadvantage that (regional West Australians) have in living where we do seems to be accepted by everybody else who think it is fine we don’t actually have a voice in Parliament.” Electoral reforms already enacted by the Cook Government have created a single statewide electorate in the Upper House, binning the current system that sees 18 MPs elected directly by voters living in the country. Ms Chappel said the loss of a regional Lower House seat “compounded” that drastic change and meant it would become increasingly difficult for regional West Australians to interact with their local MP. “There’s going to be four Legislative Assembly members that represent probably two thirds of the state in size and distance,” she said. “When you can actually find a politician within 40 or 60km to go and see, or within even 100km… I think that’s reasonable. “When it’s going to be 1000km between Carnarvon and Gingin and then just as far going east, that is clearly not reasonable.” She said expecting one MP to make themselves available to the residents of 24 different councils – as would be the case in Mid West – was “really unfair”. “Whoever that person may be, the expectation on them is unbelievable compared to what the expectation would be on a member of Parliament in a seat in the metropolitan area,” Ms Chappel said. While WALGA is yet to formalise its position on the proposed boundary redraw – a process that occurs between every state election – Ms Chappel said there was already anxiety among regional local governments they would be looked to fulfil the role of MPs. “Quite often, a person needs to talk to a politician to progress an immigration issue, it might be a health issue, it might be a social housing issue. “Whatever the issue is that their family or their business or their town is facing, they need to have someone to talk to. “So what they’re going to do is they’re probably going to come to their local governments now. So they’re expecting local governments to pick up and be the voice – and yet we’re not. “We’re there as a body that helps our communities and our shires function, but we’re not state decision-makers.”