Rapid growth is expected to prompt substantial boundary changes to at least one Sunshine Coast electorate.
Caloundra is among a handful of seats in the region earmarked for realignments, amid a review of Queensland’s electoral boundaries and names.
The seat’s enrolment of 47,304 is much greater than the quota – the average number of enrolled electors that each electorate should contain (40,274).
“The Sunshine Coast is an area where growth has outpaced the state average,” the Queensland Redistribution Commission stated in a discussion paper.
“Caloundra has exceeded the quota, having grown significantly larger than was projected by the 2017 redistribution, to become home to the fifth-largest number of electors in the state.”
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“Ninderry (created in the 2017 redistribution) and the neighbouring electorate of Buderim to the south have grown rapidly since 2017.
“Further growth is projected in the electorates of Caloundra, Buderim and Glass House.
“This means significant changes are likely to be required to manage the current and future enrolment of electorates in this region.”
Caloundra has exceeded the quota by 17.48 per cent and was projected to exceed it by 45.23 per cent by 2032.
Caloundra MP Kendall Morton expected adjustments to her electorate.
“Caloundra is such a fast-growing community,” she said. “It is a wonderful place to live.
“It seems very unlikely that we will not have a change in our electoral boundary, to mitigate not just the fact that we’re 17 per cent over already but the fact that we have a projected population growth that’s quite extreme as well.
“It’s certainly been acknowledged that our Aura community in particular is growing and will continue to grow, and I would suspect that it is unlikely that the Caloundra electorate will ever be under the deviation. It will continue to be a growing region for quite some years to come.”
Ms Morton said population growth at Caloundra was a “really positive thing … as long as we have the infrastructure to match it”.
Among other electorates in the region, Buderim has exceeded the quota by 6.61 per cent and was projected to exceed it by 13.35 per cent in 2032; Glass House was -1.23 per cent but projected to boom to over 19.95 per cent by 2032; Kawana was -1.08 per cent and projected to be -2.61 per cent; Maroochydore was -3.26 per cent and projected to be -3.17 per cent; Nicklin was -0.46 per cent and projected to be -1.29 per cent; and Ninderry was 9.58 per cent and projected to be 4.92 per cent. The Noosa electorate’s quota was -3.4 percent and projected to be -8.9 percent by 2032.
A public consultation phase ends on September 22.
Some submissions suggested the suburb of Meridan Plains be included in the Kawana electorate, instead of in Caloundra.
The next state general election is scheduled for 2028.
