Forrest electorate to lose Shire of Donnybrook-Balingup, gain Waroona

The electoral boundaries of Forrest are poised to shift slightly after the Australian Electoral Commission announced its proposed changes on Friday. Under the proposal, Forrest will gain the Shire of Waroona from the Canning electorate but lose the Shire of Donnybrook-Balingup to O’Connor. The change would result in Forrest losing about 915 formal voters who took part in the 2022 election. Out of the two shires to move, the Waroona shire polling places were slightly more Labor friendly in the 2022 election than the Donnybrook-Balingup ones. The Waroona sites had a combined two-party preferred vote of 55.2 per cent to Liberal incumbent Andrew Hastie while Donnybrook-Balingup voters preferred long-standing MP Nola Marino with a 57.4 per cent majority. Factoring in the boundary changes, Mrs Marino’s two-party preferred vote would have dropped ever so slightly, from 54.3 per cent to 54.2. This is not the first time it has been suggested the Shire of Waroona’s voters be included in Forrest. A move was floated in 2021 but was opposed by the council amid concerns it would be competing for Federal funding in the electorate against much bigger players including the City of Busselton and the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River. The shift comes as Western Australia is set to gain another electorate in Perth’s hills at the expense of Victoria and will mean nearly 15 per cent of WA voters will move electorates. Mrs Marino is set to retire from Federal politics ahead of the vote after what will be 18 years in the seat, with Ben Small earmarked to run for the Liberal Party. Members of the public are able to submit objections through the AEC’s website before June 28.