Various proposed boundary changes for Redland City’s ten council divisions were published today by the Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ).
The ECQ is managing a boundary change process because two divisions (6 and 3) exceed the +/- 10% variance in enrolled voters permitted by legislation.
Information about the boundary change process including the opportunity to make submissions to ECQ was included in a story published by Redlands2030 on 2 May 2019:
Electoral redistribution for Redland City Council
ECQ received 17 submissions by the deadline of 20 May 2019. These submissions have been made publicly available on the ECQ website.
The submissions are contained in a single 6MB pdf document:
List of Public Suggestions
Divisional Boundary Review of Redland City Council
A murky tale revisited
Six submissions from the community dealt only with the matter of an area in Birkdale (including the Commonwealth lands and Howeston Golf Course) which was transferred from Division 10 to Division 9 at the previous electoral boundaries review in 2015.
This 2015 boundary change was the subject of a Redlands2030 story:
A murky tale about land development and electoral redistribution in Redland City
Councillors’ submissions about boundary changes
The ECQ received submissions from five current councillors:
- Julie Talty
- Murray Elliott
- Paul Bishop
- Lance Hewlett
- Wendy Boglary
Cr Elliott’s submission includes a substantial realignment of divisions 6 and 9 which would add a significant area of Mt Cotton to Division 9.
Cr Hewlett said that there was no need for any changes to the boundaries of Division 4 which currently includes most of Victoria Point and Coochiemudlo Island.
Cr Bishop endorsed Cr Elliott’s proposals and also commented about ECQ’s decision in 2015 to transfer the Commonwealth Lands and Howeston Golf Course from Division 10 to Division 9.
Cr Boglary’s submission suggested changes to return parts of Ormiston to Division 1. She also suggested that the part of Birkdale removed from Division 10 previously, be restored. He also made a separate submission which elaborated upon his concerns.
Cr Talty suggested various options for reducing the size of Division 6.
Other submissions about boundary changes
In other submissions, Amanda Secomb of Macleay Island said:
“The SMBI islands should have their own councillor and division…so the councillor can understand the true issues the Islanders have in day to day life…”
C. Wigan made a short submission about the need to reduce the size of Division 6 with options including a realignment with Division 9 similar to that proposed by Cr Elliott.
Redlands2030 made a submission which addressed options for boundary changes across the city.
An anonymous submission included detailed proposals for boundary changes as well as a copy of “A murky tale about land development and electoral”. redistribution in Redland City”.
You can read all of the submission here.
Redlands2030 – 22 May 2019
Updated 24 May following ECQ’s update of submissions received.
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