Bayside council election, 2021

The amalgamation of Botany and Rockdale is possibly the single worst outcome of the Baird government amalgamations. Why wasn’t Rockdale merged into George’s River, and Botany amalgamated with Randwick?

Very good point Nicholas. Amalgamations are a farce.
There’s a massive HOT airport in the way. Talking of HOT, what about Gardiner’s Pk synthetic HEAT in summer. No good. Be interesting to see Georges River opinion.

One of the local Liberal MPs i am led to believe lobbied to have Kogarah and Hurstville amalgamate and then Rockdale with Botany . When Bexley Pool opened at the end of 2016 from memory , i spoke to Ron Hoenig at the opening re the matter. He indicated to me that afternoon that the Liberal MP had spoken to him . Ron Hoenig had suggested that the 3 Councils be combined – Rockdale , Kogarah and Hurstville .
Georges River has been a disaster in many respects . The number of Codes of Conduct from Councillors indicates that there has to be something wrong – the list goes on.

Lived in Botany LGA since 1979. Amalgamation with Kogarah/Rockdale has been a disaster for Botany residents, as has been the overdevelopment of Port Botany. Bob Carr and Kristina Keneally promised no further development of Port Botany in 2010 (KK Heffron Newsletter, 2919). Yarra Bay must therefore not be ruined by a new Cruise ship terminal.

I thought the same thing Nicholas, but I think it was to do with Sydney Airport, I think the Government wanted 1 council for the entire Airport. I think they originally proposed that Botany Bay Council take over all of the airport but Rockdale Council refused.

That just seems like an excuse. The neighbouring Randwick and Georges River councils would be much tougher for the Liberals if the more sensible mergers took place.

Agree, Nicholas i am not a supporter of this boundaries. I would have preferred the Cooks River as a boundary as this is clearly a divide between the Eastern Suburbs and the St George District (Southern Sydney along with the Sutherland Shire). The St George District has a distinctive identity and there could have been a St George LGA instead.

I 100% agree Ben, I was just saying that was there “reason” for merging Rockdale and Botany Bay. Do I think it was a Good Enough “reason” No.

I wish all Forcibly Merged Councils including Bayside followed the Inner West Council’s lead and hold Council Polls on whether to de-amalgamate.

The choice of the name Bayside for the new merged council is so unoriginal it conflicts with a merged Council in Victoria. To make matters worse, Bayside, NSW has Brighton Le Sands and Bayside, Vic has Brighton and Brighton East. The choice of name looks suspiciously like a measure to highlight one of the things that the two areas have in common.

As theorised on the Grayndler 2022 page, the merger may potentially have some interesting consequences for the next Commonwealth redistribution, given the need for more voters in Wentworth and Kingsford Smith.

I doubt the federal election commissioners would dignify the Baird government’s gerrymander in that manner. Especially since the big deficit is in Wentworth, not Kingsford-Smith, and that can be accommodated with an expansion into Kings Cross.

The broader St George area is already split between three divisions, no need to make it four.

Municipal boundaries are a known factor in redistributions. “Not dignifying” legal current municipal boundaries seems a bit partisan for the AEC to be engaging in. Submissions from locals saying the Cook River boundary is more important than municipal boundaries is however something they could take into account.

Kingsford Smith crossing the Cook River could allow Sydney to swap Newtown for Moore Park and the part of Woolloomooloo not currently in Sydney, making it a City of Sydney and Lord Howe Island only electorate. Then Wentworth becomes and Woollahra, Waverley and Randwick only electorate. And Kingsford Smith becomes a Randwick and Bayside only electorate. On municipal boundaries, that is neater than the current situation, so I would not discount the possibility of the AEC considering it.

The federal redistribution criteria makes no mention of municipal boundaries. The guidelines give consideration to four factors: community interests; means of communication and travel; physical features and area; existing boundaries.

In so far as LGA boundaries reflect those things, they are often used. Typically they are adhered to where possible in regional areas, but less so in suburbia; particularly inner suburbia, where the continuous built environment makes them much more arbitrary. This is certainly the case for the City of Sydney, which cuts across several suburbs – e.g. Newtown, Campberdown, Paddington. The case for unifying the City of Sydney at the expense of crossing a long standing and clear physical boundary like the Cooks River/Sydney Airport is very weak.

The AEC Commissioners do have predilection for local council boundaries – especially seemingly in NSW. However with amalgamations this will surely get harder and harder as it is more difficult to work with a smaller number of larger units than a larger number of smaller units. And of course, in some cases they ignore LGA boundaries altogether – says one who lives in a suburb that has been cut in three by the latest redistribution!

Agree redistributed, in the Brisbane Metropolitan area there are three federal districts (Petrie, Longman and Dickson) that each contain parts of Moreton Bay Council, with Petrie also taking in a significant piece of Brisbane City Council. In fact the last redistribution added parts of Bridgeman Downs (Brisbane City council) into Dickson and that may need to continue in future redistributions as Dickson is under quota. Unless they realign boundaries and make Petrie more focussed on Brisbane City Council.

Agree redistributed, in the Brisbane Metropolitan area there are three federal districts (Petrie, Longman and Dickson) that each contain parts of Moreton Bay Council with Petrie also adding a piece of Brisbane City Council. In fact the most recent redistribution added Bridgeman Downs (Brisbane city council) to Dickson, a process that is likely to continue in future redistributions as Dickson is under quota.

Guess with the Brisbane Metropolitan area containing only 5 local councils instead of the 20+ for Sydney and Melbourne it is almost guaranteed that federal districts are unable to be wholly contained within LGA boundaries.

The last Queensland redistribution was notable for the high emphasis it placed on existing boundaries. The Dickson/Lilley and Ryan/Blair boundaries were altered in way that deviated from their previous LGA alignment. The committee didn’t have to do that, but decided it was preferable to a whole lot of knock on effects elsewhere.

Agree David that the AEC makes use of the ‘minimal change’ approach for redistributions, avoiding wholesale changes to boundaries particularly when a state’s entitlement does not change.