Gunnedah councillor Murray O'Keefe not supportive of potential move to Barwon electorate

The Barwon electorate is currently under population quota, and suggestions are currently being reviewed by the NSW Electoral Commission for ideas to boost the numbers up.

Both the Liberal Party and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party (SFF) have made submissions to the commission to suggest the shire move from the Tamworth state electorate.

But councillor Murray O'Keefe said it would be "nigh on impossible" for one MP to represent every community in an electorate the size of Barwon.

"Gunnedah's federal electorate is Parkes which is larger than Barwon and we have all the problems there," Cr O'Keefe said.

"If we've got that issue in both our state and federal electorates where it's hard work to compete for the attention of the MP and the slice of the pie available for communities, it's not great news for Gunnedah."

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The Liberal Party, in their submission, wrote that the idea to shift the boundary was "positive" due to the "considerable community of interest links" Gunnedah has.

"The legislation around redistributions requires all NSW electorates to be balanced in terms of population size, and Barwon will be well short on the current boundaries," the submission read.

"Narrabri, Wee Waa, Boggabri and Gunnedah are closely linked, sharing Tamworth as their regional centre. Each have local economies focused on cropping and some mining.

"Gunnedah also has strong links along the black soil plains to Mullaley and towards Coonabarabran."

Cr O'Keefe said he was "surprised" that the Liberal Party had made a suggestion.

"I'm surprised they made a comment because they're usually trying to make sure there's no change to metro NSW," he told ACM.

Similarly, the SFF wrote that to ensure Barwon was not under quota, the electorate "take in the Gunnedah region in its entirety, effectively ensuring the district is well represented (from a population viewpoint) into the future".

"Barwon is unique, and should be treated as such. Gunnedah shares communities of interest, travel corridors and physical features as the rest of the district," the submission said.

Cr O'Keefe was scathing of the party's suggestion.

"The [SFF] currently represent that electorate, so it must be a lonely job to never be able to form a government and never be able to deliver some opportunity the electorate is screaming out for," he said.

"They don't represent rural and regional Australia. They're a party for people to lodge a protest vote, and that doesn't deliver sustainable growth for communities."

The councillor instead suggested that other areas be put into the Barwon electorate so it could meet its population quota.

"The Northern Tablelands, Tamworth, Upper Hunter, Dubbo, Cootamundra and Murray [electorates] all have communities which could be hived off into Barwon to fix the quota issue," he said.

"Moree used to be in the electorate of Barwon, so there could be a strong argument that they could go back there.

"Also, for the majority of the Barwon electorate, anchoring part of Dubbo into that electorate would be a good idea."