Calare MP Andrew Gee and the Liberal Party have each had their say on the future of Orange's federal seat.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
And not surprisingly, they are at odds.
As the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) continues to work on a redistribution of federal seats in NSW - due to Western Australia's rise in population earning it an additional MP in Canberra - submissions on the matter have been received and published.
Elections expert Antony Green has previously hypothesised that Bathurst might be shifted east into the neighbouring seat of Macquarie so the city's current seat of Calare can be abolished.
Mr Gee was unruffled when he spoke to ACM last year about the possibility of Calare disappearing as NSW was reduced from 47 to 46 federal seats.
"Predicting electoral boundary changes is a bit like long range weather forecasting, or having a punt on who will master Mount Panorama-Wahluu this October," he said at the time.
"It's a very uncertain business with a lot still up in the air."
In his submission to the AEC about the redistribution, Mr Gee says Calare should remain as it is.
"The Calare electorate is approximately 32,666sqkm, with 123,089 enrolled voters as at 14 October, 2023, making the electorate the sixth largest in geographical terms and 17th largest in number of enrolled voters in the state of NSW," he writes.
He says Census data shows that there were 161,298 people living in Calare in 2016 and 169,232 people in 2021.
"As the 2021 Census occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, these figures do not take into account the post-pandemic population movements to regional NSW," he writes.
Mr Gee - a former National who now sits as an independent - says the communities within Calare retain strong connections and "limited communities of interest exist outside of the existing boundaries".
The NSW Liberal Party, meanwhile, has suggested combining Lithgow, Mudgee, Bathurst, Oberon and Blayney with the central and upper Blue Mountains and calling this seat Macquarie.
The current seat of Macquarie, under the Liberal Party suggestion, would be renamed, while the Calare name would disappear.
Under the Liberals' suggestion, Orange and most of the Cabonne local government area would shift from Calare to the seat of Riverina.
NSW Labor's submission leaves Calare unchanged, while the NSW Nationals propose transferring the Cowra Shire Council area from Riverina to Calare.
Orange has been in Calare since the seat's creation in 1906. However, the seat's boundaries have always been tinkered with.
Bathurst has a history of moving back and forth between Calare and Macquarie (which currently covers Richmond and Windsor in north-west Sydney's Hawkesbury region as well as the towns and villages of the Blue Mountains).
Bathurst's Ben Chifley was a Member for Macquarie, while urban Bathurst went from Calare to Macquarie in 2006 and then back to Calare in 2009 during an unsettled period in the 2000s.
In terms of the looming redistribution in NSW, the AEC has previously said that proposed boundaries and names will be released for comment in the second quarter of 2024.
