Both councils discussed the issues at their respective council meetings on Monday night.

The changes, that were announced in January, proposes two new electorate areas – Macintyre and Prosser – that would split between them the existing areas of Western Tiers, Apsley and southern seat Rumney.

Western Tiers and Apsley are currently served by MLCs Greg Hall and Tanya Rattray respectively. Rumney is served by Tony Mulder.

The proposal was put forward by the redistribution committee and tribunal and is required by law every nine years to keep the electorate population numbers even.

Both councils also expressed concern the redistribution proposal would shift one seat on the Legislative Council from the North to the South.

Expected population changes would mean the new electorate of McIntyre would now include Flinders Island and Dorset while the second new electorate Prosser would take half of the East Coast and Sorell.

With expected population growth in Sorell, Prosser would likely have a representative elected from that area and Macintyre would likely have a representative elected from Kentish or Meander, which leaves Dorset unrepresented.

Dorset Mayor Greg Howard, who put forward a motion to reject the proposal, said the region was concerned it would possibly lose representation from its area.

“Given (Macintyre) will have three municipalities, Kentish, Meander and Dorset it will be difficult for us to get someone elected,” he said.

“We just wouldn’t have as many voters to get anyone elected [from our region].”

The motion was passed by the council on Monday night.

Mr Howard also said he believed the east to west divide could become an issue for the elected member to travel across the electorate and also to Hobart.

Northern Midlands will also be highly affected by the changes. Under the proposal they will be split between the two new electorates and Perth would move to Launceston.

The region is split between Western Tiers and Apsley under the current electoral areas.

Northern Midlands mayor David Downie said ideally it would be better if the region were bundled together into one Legislative Council electorate.

“We feel we would have better representation in one electorate,” he said.

He said it was hard for communities to understand which electorate they fell under for the Legislative Council so splitting the region three ways could cause issues.

Mr Downie said the council also had concerns with the boundary being split from east to west because of the differing industries in those areas.

“We think it’s also important to have representation from our agricultural areas. We don’t need to have the areas fractured,” he said.

Northern Midlands council will seek a meeting with current MLCs Greg Hall and Tanya Rattray and will be submitting a formal submission to the tribunal on the reshuffle.

Submissions are open until February 25. Anyone wishing to make a submission can go online. 

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