New South Wales, Queensland to have electorates redrawn: Australian Electoral Commission

February 20, 2009 The Australian Electoral Commission has announced that electorates for the federal election will be redrawn in the states of New South Wales and Queensland. The Australian House of Representatives has 150 members elected from single representative electorates.

New South Wales will lose an electorate while Queensland gains one. "The figures show the population for Queensland has increased sufficiently to result in that State increasing its entitlement from 29 to 30 seats,” said Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn. “At the same time, the entitlement for New South Wales will reduce from 49 to 48 seats.”

A similar occurrence occurred before the 2007 election, with the electorate of Gwydir in New South Wales being abolished and the electorate of Flynn being created in central Queensland.