The former shire of Boorowa, currently in the NSW electoral district of Goulburn, is to be moved into the seat of Cootamundra, under a draft redistribution proposal published by the NSW Electoral Commission last week.
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The move, which will add nearly 2,000 voters to the electorate, is necessary to keep Cootamundra within the legally-required limit of 10 per cent (plus or minus) of the average voting population of NSW electorates.
The Commission says some Sydney electoral districts such as Camden and Riverstone are growing so fast that they will shoot to 20-50% above average by 2023, whereas Cootamundra could fall to 9.6% below average by 2023 unless the number of voters is increased by expanding its area.
The Commission has invited public submissions and comments on its Report of the Electoral Districts Redistribution Panel on the draft determination of the names and boundaries of electoral districts of New South Wales, which covers all 93 electorates in NSW.
The closing date for all submissions will be December 23.
The report stated: "The redistribution panel proposes to transfer that part of Hilltops local government area currently in the electoral district of Goulburn (Boorowa and surrounds - the former Boorowa Council) into the electoral district of Cootamundra".
Figures published in the report show that unless this change takes place, growth in the number of electors in Cootamundra will be slow, with the total increasing by only 593 (from 53,064 to 53,557) over the next three years.
This would be 9.6% below the projected state average.
However, with the addition of the Boorowa district, the total number of electors would grow to 55,521, still below average (around -6.8%) but more safely within the margin of 10 per cent.
The total number of voters in NSW is expected to grow from around 5.32 million to nearly 5.51 million over the next three years.
The average electorate size is projected to grow from around 57,000 to more than 59,000 over that period.
Meanwhile, the redistribution panel's report did not take up a proposal by the National Party for major changes to the boundaries of the Cootamundra electorate to make way for a proposed new electorate of Murray River, to replace the current electorate of Murray in the far south west of NSW.
The Nationals argued that the new seat would ensure "to the maximum possible extent" that residents in the most remote parts of the state would have reasonable access to their MP.
Further, it suggested that aligning the seat to the Murray and Darling Rivers would enable proper attention to be given to the "predominant issues" of access to drinking water and environmental water matters.
