By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Keysborough MP and Cabinet Minister Martin Pakula’s seat will be abolished under new state electoral boundary changes.
From the November 2022 state election, nearly 47,000 Keysborough District voters would be absorbed into neighbouring seats Dandenong, Mordialloc, Mulgrave and Clarinda.
The seat is offset by the creation of Berwick District in the outer South East.
It is one of nine districts replaced by an Electoral Boundaries Commission state review.
The commission foreshadowed the proposed changes in June, followed by a round of public submissions and hearings.
In response on 28 October, Mr Pakula tweeted in jest: “So what the hell happened to Keysborough?”
He’d held the seat since a 2013 by-election, when the District was called Lyndhurst.
He has not commented on his future plans as a result of the redivision.
Mr Pakula holds portfolios in Industry Support and Recovery, Trade, Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Business Precincts and Racing.
He was also formerly the state’s Attorney-General.
Dandenong District held by State Cabinet member Gabrielle Williams would absorb 14,373 voters from the abolished seat’s suburbs of Keysborough and Noble Park.
The commission stated the change would give the Dandenong seat clear boundaries of Heatherton, Corrigan and Chapel Roads and the Dandenong Bypass.
About 6000 Endeavour Hills residents will move from Dandenong District to Narre Warren North District.
Labor MP Meng Heang Tak’s Clarinda electorate would shift south, absorbing 19,522 electors from Keysborough and Mordialloc Districts.
This includes residents in Moorabbin Airport, Dingley Village and Springvale South as well as parts of Keysborough and Noble Park.
Mordialloc held by Labor’s Tim Richardson would absorb about 10,000 voters from Waterways, Braeside and most of the Keysborough suburb.
About 3000 Keysborough District voters would be added to Premier Daniel Andrews’s Mulgrave electorate.
This will unite all of the suburb Mulgrave and Springvale’s voters and lead to “potentially clearer communities of interest”, the Commission found.
The EBC ordered a redivision to reflect Melbourne’s population distribution.
Hence, the middle suburban districts of Ferntree Gully, Mt Waverley and Keysborough districts would be replaced by Berwick, Greenvale and Laverton in high-growth outer areas.
The EBC considered abolishing either Clarinda or Keysborough, though it noted four submitters suggested abolishing Mulgrave District held by Premier Daniel Andrews.
In its submission to the EBC, the ALP proposed retaining the electorates in Greater Dandenong, instead abolishing Ferntree Gully, Forest Hill and Sandringham seats.
The Liberals proposed abolishing both Clarinda and Keysborough in favour of new seats in the outer South East. Mulgrave would also be absorbed into a new Springvale District.
Greater Dandenong’s council area will remain in the upper house’s South-East Metropolitan Region.
