A small section of Labor heartland at Albion Park Rail would be excised from the Liberal-held seat of Kiama if the NSW Liberal Party has its way.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The proposal is contained in the party's submission into a review of NSW electoral boundaries.
The 2011 state election delivered the key seat of Kiama to the Liberal Party by a convincing 57.5 per cent to 42.5 per cent margin on a two-party preferred basis.
However, there were some parts of the Kiama electorate that remained loyal to Labor, including the seat's second largest polling booth at Albion Park Rail Public School where 65.3 per cent of formal votes fell Labor's way.
The Princes Highway through Albion Park Rail is the boundary between the Kiama and Shellharbour electorates, so a section of "The Rail" is already in the seat of Shellharbour MP Anna Watson.
In its submission, the Liberal Party suggests swapping the Kiama seat's section of Albion Park Rail for the Shoalhaven's rural areas such as Terara and Pyree, south of the Shoalhaven River.
The river is the electorate's current southern boundary.
The party argues its proposal is based on "a genuine community of economic interests" with agricultural communities such as Pyree and Jamberoo closely resembling each other.
Unsurprisingly the National Party's submission also suggests removing Albion Park Rail from Kiama.
However, in their submissions, the ALP and the Greens both recommended Albion Park Rail stay in the Kiama electorate and instead a small section of the Wingecarribee area be transferred to other seats.
The NSW Electoral Districts Commissioners are in the process of redrawing boundaries.
The law requires the electoral boundaries be reviewed every eight years to ensure the 93 NSW electoral districts have an approximately equal number of electors.
The Electoral Commission has given people until March 20 to comment on the proposals available at www.elections.nsw.gov.au.
Kiama MP Gareth Ward said he had no control over the outcome and no input into his party's submission.
"I'm not thrilled about any part of my electorate changing," Mr Ward said.
"No matter what they suggest I am proud to represent every part of the electorate and will continue to do so until the next election."
Ms Watson said distribution proposals "tend to generate a lot of excitement".
"But the only thing you can be certain of is the uncertainty of where the final boundaries will end up," Ms Watson said.
"I'm not getting terribly excited about the proposals put forward by any of the parties ... I'm happy with the current state of community of interests in my existing seat."