A federal Labor MP risks losing her seat after the electoral commission proposed abolishing a Victorian electorate, while a new seat will be established in Western Australia dedicated to a prisoner of war.
The Australian Electoral Commission has recommended the seat of Higgins in inner-Melbourne be abolished at the next election, as part of a redistribution.
Higgins is held by Labor backbencher Michelle Ananda-Rajah, who won the seat from the Liberals at the 2022 election with a slim two per cent margin.
The electorate will be absorbed into the surrounding seats of Chisholm, Hotham, Kooyong, Macnamara and Melbourne.
Meanwhile, a new electorate will be set up in WA due to the state’s growing population.
The commission has proposed a new seat called Bullwinkel be located in the Perth hills.
The seat would be named after Lieutenant Colonel Vivian Bullwinkel, who was the sole survivor of the 1942 Bangka Island massacre of Australian nurses during World War II and was a prisoner of war for more than three years.
She later became a director of nursing and worked for the recognition of military personnel and victims of war crimes.
The redistribution of seats comes as the House of Representatives will reduce in size at the next election from 151 to 150 seats.
While WA will gain a seat at the next poll, due to be held by May 2025, Victoria and NSW will lose a seat in the process.
A decision of which NSW seat will be abolished will be made within weeks.
Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said a change in population was the reason why Higgins was being abolished.
“Under the proposal some significant changes would occur, with the boundaries of Victorian divisions being amended to accommodate the decrease,” he said.
A final decision on the new electoral boundaries will be made later in the year following consultations.
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