WESTERN Australians concerned about the proposal to morph the regional seats of Moore and North West Central into one new 'Mid West' seat are being encouraged to make their feelings known to the Western Australian Electoral Commission (WAEC) by lodging their submissions online.
The proposal is open for public comment until Monday, August 21, after which the WAEC is expected to make its final decision on the electoral boundary redraw.
With the seat of North West Central held by The Nationals WA MP Merome Beard and State opposition and The Nationals WA leader Shane Love holding the seat of Moore, Mr Love said the proposal was another "kick in the teeth" for regional WA.
"Labor should be ashamed of itself for putting forward a proposal to the Electoral Redistribution Commission which appears to have been, to some extent, followed by the commission and led to a situation where regional Western Australians in that area north of Perth are now going to have a very difficult time accessing their local member of parliament," Mr Love said.
"Making a seat of such a diverse nature - that you are running from Muchea on the outskirts of Perth to Meekatharra is not going to be practical, and it's not going to lead to good representation for those people living in the region."
Mr Love said the electoral boundary redraw was on the back of the "kick in the guts" regional WA received when Labor slashed the State's regional representation by using its two-house majority to turn the upper house into a statewide electorate.
"The imposition of further loss of representation in WA's regional areas also should not have been envisaged while we are still bedding down the shock of losing those 18 dedicated regional seats in one go since the 2021 election," he said.
The commission's recommendation to abolish the seats of Moore and North West Central is due to the low number of voters in each district.
If approved by the WAEC, the change will take affect for the 2025 election and allow for the new seat of Oakford to be created in Perth's southern suburbs.
However Mr Love said there was still hope for the two seats to be retained, but it would require the public's support.
"People can go to the WA Electoral Commission website and they can make a submission outlining their disgust at the loss of regional representation that is being proposed," Mr Love said.
"It is possible that the commission could re-consider, and it's certainly our wish that they would."
Liberal MP for the Mining and Pastoral Region Neil Thomson launched an e-Petition against what he described as an "assault on the regions" by the WA Labor Party while speaking at the WAFarmers 'Let Farmers Keep Farming' meeting in Katanning early last week.
"There is a new petition being launched today to express our dismay at the removal of a legislative assembly seat in the lower house and again taking away representation in the bush," Mr Thomson said.
"These petitions give us an opportunity to have our voices heard in parliament in Perth."
Mr Thomson, who launched a previous petition which garnered more than 30,000 signatures over a course of two weeks, calling for the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage (ACH) Act to be delayed by six months, said 10,000 of those signatures had come from people who lived in metropolitan Perth.
"Metropolitan people are very concerned and that is where we have to get the message through - so they can hear and stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of the bush - that we need more respect, we need more engagement and we need to build on our future for our wonderful Australian nation," Mr Thomson said.
WAEC is an independent, apolitical body which conducts periodic reviews of the State's electoral boundaries.
