Katter’s Australian Party MP Shane Knuth is considering his political future after discovering that his seat of Dalrymple could be abolished in what is being described as the biggest shakeup of electoral boundaries in decades.
The Queensland Redistribution Commission was tasked with adding an extra four extra seats to take Queensland’s tally from 89 to 93.
Mr Knuth’s seat of Dalrymple has been abolished along with the urban electorate of Mount Coot-tha currently held by the Environment Minister, Labor’s Steven Miles.
One of the proposed new seats, Hill, is located in north Queensland. The five other new seats are in south-east Queensland.
Only two seats remain unchanged in terms of their name and boundary; Southern Downs and Townsville.
The seat of Mount Isa, also held by the KAP, has been renamed Traeger and extended to include Charters Towers.
Mr Knuth lives in Charters Towers and said he was devastated that he wouldn’t be able to run in his home town.
Both he and Mount Isa MP Robbie Katter were “very disappointed” by the proposed changes, Mr Knuth said.
“This is the second time my seat has been abolished,” he said.
“The last time was in 2008 when my seat of Charters Towers was re-zoned into Dalrymple and that meant I had to run in a region that was over 570km away.”
Mr Knuth declined to speculate on why his seat had been abolished under the proposed changes, except to say “the electoral commission took note mostly of the LNP and Labor submissions”.
“Our (the KAP) submission revealed how we could minimise any impacts on seats throughout rural and regional Queensland without abolishing any other seats,” he said.
“The Commission has really overhauled rural and regional Queensland just to get rid of Dalrymple. I do feel for the constituents in the electorate as their seat was divided into three different sections and it makes it very difficult for them to support their traditional member of parliament.”
Mr Knuth said he would consult with family and his constituents about his next move.
“You never know what the tide will bring in. But I’ll be looking at McMaster, Hill and Hinchinbrook as they are the closest options I have.”
Both the KAP and the LNP had argued in their submissions that lowly populated rural seats should not be increased in land size due to difficulties in covering vast areas. The seat of Warrego has also seen significant changes with the new boundary taking in the town of Dalby while Chinchilla, Miles and Jandoawe will now form part of the Callide electorate.