WANNON would be locked to the conservative parties for a "lifetime and beyond" if proposed changes to the federal electorate boundaries went ahead, a local ALP leader has warned.
Hamilton branch president Paul Battista said Labor would lose members and support trying to win the seat under the planned redistribution.
In an Australian Electoral Commission submission, Mr Battista has suggested the best outcome for the area would be to push it towards more marginalised areas such as Ballarat and Corangamite.
The AEC is proposing a redistribution of seats in Victoria which would result in Wannon being pushed north to Horsham, Edenhope and St Arnaud, making it one of the safest conservative seats in Australia.
Wannon would also lose Corangamite Shire under the redistribution. The shire would be transferred east to the federal seat of Corangamite, with analysts predicting it would then become a marginal Liberal electorate.
In his submission, Mr Battista strongly objects to the changes, describing them as a "bias redistribution locking up the seat to the conservative parties for a lifetime and beyond". "Hope for a marginal seat, in which Canberra would listen to the communities of Wannon would be lost and ignored by major parties and government departments."
The ALP would find it difficult to select and find candidates, who would be wasting their time running with no opportunity to win or marginalise the seat, Mr Battista said.
Three-time Wannon ALP candidate Richard Morrow has also made a submission objecting to the redistribution, saying there is no community of interest between the Shire of Corangamite and the federal seat of Corangamite.
"In reality such a movement would bundle together communities with contrasting economic, social, sporting, health and educational interests and would result in unnecessary difficulties toward the application of good public policy for the entire region," Mr Morrow's submission says.
"Corangamite (electorate) is currently dominated by manufacturing (high and mid-level timber production), tourism and retail ? Geelong, Surf Coast and Colac.
"A significant proportion of Corangamite electors work in the city of Geelong or Geelong suburbs in these occupations. "As a consequence, transport and communication issues are directly related to the migration of workers on a daily basis."
Mr Morrow said in comparison, the communities of Camperdown, Terang, Timboon and Cobden looked towards Warrnambool for industry, education, employment, health care, social and recreational opportunities.
"Those communities have a different industry base, with dairy farming being the dominant agricultural interest."
He lists sporting links as an indicator of community interests, with the Colac Football Netball Club moving from the Hampden league to the Geelong league in 2001.
"The example given by Australian rules football is reflected in other sporting codes including baseball, netball, soccer and reflects the reality that Colac is the accepted dividing line for the population in western Victoria between an orientation toward Geelong and an orientation westward," Mr Morrow said.
"With the utmost respect, it is an absurdity to infer that there is a community of interest between places as economically diverse as Surf Coast (Corangamite) and Camperdown (Wannon) or Bannockburn (Corangamite) and Timboon (Wannon)."
The AEC wants submission comments by Friday.
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