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Speaker 1: There are proposed changes to territory electoral boundaries. They've been

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Speaker 1: released ahead of the twenty twenty four election. Some changes

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Speaker 1: expected that they could potentially result in swings within those electorates,

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Speaker 1: and the reviewer is currently underway. So it happens every

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Speaker 1: four years before an election, is my understanding. It's designed

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Speaker 1: to make sure that the territories twenty five electorates each

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Speaker 1: have a similar number of voters. Joining me in the

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Speaker 1: studio to tell us more as the Northern Territories Electoral

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Speaker 1: Commissioner Ian Logan Nathan, good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Ian, Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Now, m what exactly or why exactly are these reviews required.

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Speaker 2: Katie, I thought your introduction was a good summary of

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Speaker 2: in terms of the whole process, what occurs is eighteen

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Speaker 2: months before territory election, there's an independent committee that's made

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Speaker 2: up of an independent chair, which is Trevor Riley in

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Speaker 2: this instance, the Order to General, the Surveyor General and

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Speaker 2: myself as the Electoral Commissioner. We review the electoral boundaries

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Speaker 2: and as you said, there's a whole lot of things

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Speaker 2: that are taken to consideration, but the main objective of

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Speaker 2: the redistribution is to try to have an equal number

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Speaker 2: of people in all seats at the election next year.

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Speaker 1: So what is that what's that sort of approximate number

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Speaker 1: in each seat that we expect.

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Speaker 2: For the territory At this stage it's pretty close to

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Speaker 2: six thousand per seed and.

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Speaker 1: Six thousand per seed. I would imagine that ebbs and

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Speaker 1: flows a little bit based on the population growth, based

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Speaker 1: on you know, some of the areas out in Palmerston

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Speaker 1: have grown substantially, I would suspect over the last four years.

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Speaker 2: Look absolutely, particularly in Palmeston and Durach Heights and in Zacola,

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Speaker 2: we've seen significant increases in population. And the biggest changes

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Speaker 2: that's proposed relate to Palmerston. And if you look at

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Speaker 2: Palmeston in let's say the four electorates there, they're currently

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Speaker 2: fifteen hundred electors over quota, So how do we balance

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Speaker 2: that out? And that's what the committee's been looking at.

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Speaker 1: So what electorates are you looking at out in part

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Speaker 1: Romiston firstly? And how might they change a little bit.

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Speaker 1: I know it's obviously review process, but how might they change?

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Speaker 2: So this is what's proposed, and the whole point of

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Speaker 2: this is we put out a proposal and we seek

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Speaker 2: feedback from the parties and from other stakeholders and who

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Speaker 2: obviously have thoughts in this regard. In Parmeston, it's all

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Speaker 2: the seats because Spilett has been growing at such a

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Speaker 2: massive rate, so once you make changes to Spillt, it

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Speaker 2: has like a bit of a domino effect in terms

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Speaker 2: of the other divisions. What the committee has tried to

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Speaker 2: do is we've tried to keep the core areas within

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Speaker 2: the divisions. We're always trying to keep suburbs together, so

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Speaker 2: we don't want suburbs split over divisions. But with Palmerston,

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Speaker 2: there are just too many electors that've got more than

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Speaker 2: four electorates of electors, So how do we balance this out?

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Speaker 2: And what the what the committee has proposed is that

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Speaker 2: the Marlow lagoon be moved to the division of Nelson.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so not necessarily creating like a new electorate or

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Speaker 1: another seat or anything like that, but moving some of

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Speaker 1: those suburbs, or one suburb in particular, out towards the

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Speaker 1: rural area.

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Speaker 2: That's correct, and Marlow has been chosen because there's about

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Speaker 2: five hundred electors in Marlow's and we've looked to try

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Speaker 2: to balance the remaining over quota over the remaining four divisions.

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Speaker 2: And you know there is a semi rurle in Marlows

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Speaker 2: which has some affiliation with the rural lifestyle in Nelson.

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Speaker 1: And then when you look at places like the northern suburbs,

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Speaker 1: have we seen much growth around there and are we

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Speaker 1: expecting many changes?

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Speaker 2: The growth in the northern suburbs predominantly come in relation

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Speaker 2: to Mewerhead and the seat of Wangouri now is well

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Speaker 2: over quota, so we need to balance that out. And

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Speaker 2: again it has a bit of a domino effect. So

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Speaker 2: once we've balanced that out, that impacts Casuarina, that impacts

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Speaker 2: impacts Johnson. And we're also proposing that Naki Lagoon move

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Speaker 2: from the division of Nelson to Karama.

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Speaker 1: It sort of makes sense because it is closer to

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Speaker 1: the electorate of Karama, you would think. However, I guess

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Speaker 1: they are quite large blocks. Some might consider that more

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Speaker 1: of a rural area to leave.

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Speaker 2: Look, certainly it makes sense to some people and probably

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Speaker 2: not as sensible to others, right, And that's the whole

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Speaker 2: point of this proposal, is just to put it out

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Speaker 2: there and give people an opportunity to provide feedback.

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Speaker 1: Are there any changes for the likes of Central Australia.

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Speaker 1: I know that the Mayor of Central Australia or Alice Springs,

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Speaker 1: have been pushing for another seat. It doesn't sound like

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Speaker 1: that's an option no.

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Speaker 2: Just in terms of if you look at the elector's

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Speaker 2: numbers in Central Australia at this stage, there's no case

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Speaker 2: to increase the number of seats there.

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Speaker 1: Now, what about some of our Bush electorates, because I

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Speaker 1: guess sometimes we have difficulty in making sure that everybody's

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Speaker 1: on the electoral role. What work is underway out.

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Speaker 2: In the Bush in terms of the Bush electorates, what

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Speaker 2: we're proposing here, there's minimal changes. The division of Mulka

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Speaker 2: is the only division that is proposed to be over

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Speaker 2: five percent of quote. It's at nine percent of quota

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Speaker 2: and that's just based in relation to predominantly cultural grounds

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Speaker 2: and the submissions that we have received. What is happening

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Speaker 2: in the Bush, which is in the lead up to

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Speaker 2: the Voice referendum, is the Australian Electoral Commission has been

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Speaker 2: doing a lot of work out in Bush communities to

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Speaker 2: ensure that Aboriginal territorians are enrolled before the referendum. So

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Speaker 2: they're in that process and they're keeping us up to

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Speaker 2: date in regard to what's going on. We know that

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Speaker 2: there's about fifteen thousand Territorians who are entitled beyond the role,

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Speaker 2: who aren't on the role, and certainly the AEC are

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Speaker 2: targeting those electors. So depends if we have thousands of

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Speaker 2: people that come back on the role through this process,

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Speaker 2: then that certainly would have an impact in terms of

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Speaker 2: the redistribution and the committee would have to relook at

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Speaker 2: those numbers again.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, I mean fifteen thousand people potentially added to

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Speaker 1: the role, if all of them did get added to

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Speaker 1: the role by the Australian Electoral Commission, it would have

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Speaker 1: a huge impact. I would think.

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Speaker 2: You look, it's just I mean, it wouldn't even have

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Speaker 2: to be fifteen thousand, it would just have to be

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Speaker 2: a fair portion of that would certainly make a change.

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Speaker 2: As I said that there's six thousand in a division,

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Speaker 2: so even if you get half dozen electors enrolled, that's

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Speaker 2: more than a division in the Northern territory, So that

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Speaker 2: certainly would change the dynamics.

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Speaker 1: How much longer have people got to sort of have

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Speaker 1: their say on these proposed changes.

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Speaker 2: So they've got till the twenty third of June. If

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Speaker 2: they go to our website, the NTC website, you'll see

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Speaker 2: that the report's there. There's a whole lot of information,

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Speaker 2: there's a whole lot of maps there. Certainly, if people

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Speaker 2: gone equeries, they can call us or email us. But

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Speaker 2: this is really an opportunity for people to sort of

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Speaker 2: say in. It's an open and transparent and independent process.

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Speaker 2: We're seeking people's speed back. These are our views based

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Speaker 2: on the information that we've had. All the information in

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Speaker 2: terms of enrollment numbers and anything else is also available

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Speaker 2: on the website.

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Speaker 1: Is it mostly and you may not be able to

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Speaker 1: reveal this, but is it mostly political parties that are

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Speaker 1: most interested in these kinds of reviews and making sure

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Speaker 1: their voices are heard, or do you find that everyday

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Speaker 1: territorians are quite sort of involved and want to make

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Speaker 1: sure that they have their say.

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Speaker 2: Look at to mix. Certainly the political parties have got

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Speaker 2: a vested interest in this, and they certainly provide comments.

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Speaker 2: There's a few people who for their particular might have

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Speaker 2: a preference in terms of which division they're in, particularly

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Speaker 2: out in remote electorates, And there seem to be some

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Speaker 2: Blurgs And I say, and I say, it because that

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Speaker 2: is tend to be males who live all around Australia

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Speaker 2: and they just seem to go to work, look after

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Speaker 2: their kids and comment on redistributions right around the country.

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Speaker 2: That seems to be their their hobby and there and

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Speaker 2: there we get quite a few from those as well who.

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Speaker 1: Fall into that category of being a female though. Well,

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Speaker 1: it's an interesting one and I think it is interesting

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Speaker 1: because it does sort of change for some people if

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Speaker 1: they're really into their politics or really into who they

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Speaker 1: think should or shouldn't be representing them, it does have

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Speaker 1: an impact on them. Now, when do you expect that

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Speaker 1: it's all going to be finalized?

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Speaker 2: Like I said, Katie, that this is the first proposal

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Speaker 2: that we've put out and we'll seek feedback. If there's

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Speaker 2: going to be major changes to this first proposal, we

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Speaker 2: will go out and have another round of consultation. So

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Speaker 2: that would mean that the whole process wouldn't finalize till

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Speaker 2: the latter part of next to the latter part of

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Speaker 2: this year, I should say. But if there isn't major changes,

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Speaker 2: then it'll be finalized by September.

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Speaker 1: Well Ian Logan Nathan, the Northern Territory electoral Commissioner. Always

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Speaker 1: good to catch up with you. Thanks so much for

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Speaker 1: your time this morning. Thank you, Katie, thank you