MILLICENT voters would probably have to be absorbed into the electorate of Mount Gambier if a new policy of Nick Xenophon’s SA Best is adopted.
Senator Xenophon has pledged to reduce the number of South Australian House of Assembly MPs from 47 to 34.
Under this proposal, each seat in the Lower House would need to have about 35,000 voters.
At the last poll in 2014, there were only 23,898 voters in the Mount Gambier electorate along with 23,565 in the seat of MacKillop, which takes in Millicent and extends as far north as Meningie.
There was a separate seat of Millicent in the House of Assembly between 1956 and 1977.
The past members for Millicent are all deceased and were Labor’s Jim Corcoran (1956 to 1962), his son and fellow Labor MP Des Corcoran (1962 to 1975) and Liberal Murray Vandepeer (1975 to 1977).
In an ironic touch, Mr Corcoran (junior) was later the MP for the city seat of Hartley, which is the electorate polls suggest Senator Xenophon will win at the March election.
Senator Xenophon announced other wide-ranging electoral policies on Sunday with the number of legislative councillors reduced from 22 to 17.
The senator plans to halve the terms of upper house representatives from eight years to four claiming the move would save $6m a year.
SA Best also wants to cut the number of cabinet ministers from 14 to eight.
“Right now we have a bloated and slack State Parliament and many South Australians wouldn’t have a clue who their state MP is,” Senator Xenophon said.
“Reducing the number of MPs from 69 to 51 will save tens of millions of dollars over a four year period that could be much better spent on frontline community services.
“Making the parliament smaller will put every MP on notice – ensuring they work harder for their electorates.
“Requiring upper house MPs to face the people every four years, instead of every eight years, will mean a more dynamic and responsive upper house.
“With fewer MPs we will need fewer ministers and that means fewer political staffers and spin doctors, which frees up money for real doctors.”
Since Senator Xenophon went public with his announcement, it has attracted strong opposition from Liberal Opposition Leader Steven Marshall.
“After 16 years of Labor ignoring our regions, Nick Xenophon wants to slash the number of MPs who are from regional SA,” Mr Marshall said.
“We need a Marshall Government that values the regions – not one that keeps ignoring them – like a Weatherill/Xenophon Government.
“They don’t understand that South Australia exists beyond Gepps Cross and the toll gate”.
The South Eastern Times has sought a response from Liberal candidate for MacKillop Nick McBride, but had not received a response by press time yesterday.
