By Rowan Forster
A suburban council has rubbished the proposed new name of the McMillan electorate, Monash, describing it as a “recipe for confusion”.
Monash City Council believes the Australian Electoral Commission’s decision to rename the Gippsland based division after Sir John Monash is an oversight.
Councillors opted to object the change during a Tuesday night meeting.
It comes amid controversy over the glorification of Angus McMillian’s conquests, with claims he massacred Indigenous people throughout Gippsland in the 1840s.
“The Australian Electoral Commission is right to recognise that Sir John Monash was a great Australian who is deserving of a federal electorate named in his honour,” Monash former mayor Geoff Lake said in a statement.
“However, the place to do that is in the heart of the City of Monash and not in some other place hundreds of kilometres away.
“Renaming a Gippsland-based seat as Monash is a recipe for confusion.”
While Sir Monash was a renowned World War I hero, he was also instrumental in developing Latrobe Valley’s State Electricity Commission.
As reported previously by the Gazette, Pakenham and parts of the Cardinia Shire area will be absorbed into the seat of La Trobe under the new proposal.
It is estimated the McMillan electorate will lose about 36,000 voters as a result of the overhaul.
Monash Council’s electorate – Hotham – will also be redrawn, with Monash University, Monash Medical Centre and the busiest section of the Monash Freeway all within the heart of the re-sketched boundary.
Federal member for McMillan Russell Broadbent was supportive of the change.
He said he had been campaigning for the seat to be retitled for a decade.
“They have chosen the name Monash, and I think that is a good move,” he said.
“There were a number of people concerned about Angus McMillan’s involvement in the deaths of Aboriginal people.”
Those wishing to make an objection to either the name change or the boundary realignment can email FedRedistribution-VIC@aec.gov.au by 4 May.
