Wednesday 23 February 2011

Council division number swings and roundabouts

The latest electoral numbers for the local Cairns Regional Council divisions has just been released.

With just over 91,200 voters in the region, the largest change is in Di Forsyth's division 7, that records a massive 10.5% drop.

"It is noted in the enrolment figures provided by ECQ that Division 7 has -10.5%, which is
outside the Act’s definition of reasonable," Council's manager of governance Linda Kirchner said. "It is further noted that Division 9 is +8.22%. As such there is a net 17.72% difference in the number of electors in these two divisions."

Council watcher Paul Drabble reckons that a 10.5% decrease in voters in Division 7, may be an ominous sign.

"I would think that crime in division 7 has finally made people move, or is it just they don't have a good councillor?" Paul Drabble asks.

By contrast, there was an increase of constituents in divisions 8 and 9 by 13%. A report that will be presented to this Wednesday's Council meeting, will seek advice if boundary changes are needed.

"It is appropriate that Council considers whether any change to Divisional boundaries is
in the public interest," Linda Kirchner said. "As a result of the State Government decision to amalgamate Cairns City and Douglas Shire, there were significant changes to divisional boundaries and this resulted in confusion for the electors within those divisions."

"It is therefore proposed in the recommendation that Council inform the Minister that it does not believe an adjust to divisional boundaries is justified at this time."

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