Pollie gets a cracker in boundary redraw

The politician who represents one of the most marginal seats in the State has reason to celebrate after the new electoral boundaries were announced this morning.

Collie-Preston MLA Mick Murray won his seat by only 56 votes from Liberal candidate Jaimee Motion at the 2013 Election.

But the Labor MP believes his battle to win at the 2017 poll has received a boost after his seat was changed to include Donnybrook and Balingup.

Mr Murray said he was happy he was not forced to contest the proposed Collie-Capel seat based on the draft boundaries that were released in July.

Under that scenario, Mr Murray said he would have had to campaign for the first time in small conservative towns near Busselton and concedes he probably wouldn’t have won.

“I am relieved,” Mr Murray said.

The WA Electoral Distribution Commissioners released the new boundaries of 59 lower house divisions which include the new seat of Baldivis in the Perth metropolitan area.

Liberal MP Graham Jacobs’ seat of Eyre has been abolished and the seat of Wagin has been renamed Roe to take in areas of Esperance.

The new Perth seat and the loss of one from regional WA has had the usual domino effect of changes to the rest of the boundaries in WA to maintain similar population levels in each seat.