Electoral reform legislation comments (assuming the passage)

The Legislative Council has now passed the Government’s changes to Upper House elections late last night, so this is no doubt a happy day for the ALP but a devastating day for regional communities.

Labor’s success in their 120-year campaign to cut regional representation will mean that the disadvantages regional people face are about to get worse.

The level of service you receive and the standard - in fact the very existence - of the facilities you get to use and enjoy are directly related to the representation your community can tap in to.

The standard of your highways, your schools and your hospitals are dependent on the level of your representation, and slashing that representation will inevitable impact badly on regional communities.

It is galling that regional Labor MPs failed to engage as their own electorates were decimated. The only regional MP to give a second reading speech was South West MP Alannah MacTiernan, who until six months ago was a North Metropolitan Region member and who until May 2021 had represented metropolitan seats only since 1993.

No truly regional Labor MP spoke beyond a few desultory comments in the third reading stage after all the substantive debate was over.