No, Labor didn't redraw key Melbourne electorate boundary to win it
By Matthew Elmas
WHAT WAS CLAIMED : Labor redrew the electoral boundaries in the seat of Menzies to guarantee a win.
OUR VERDICT : New electoral boundaries are determined by independent redistribution committees, not the government.
The Labor government did not redraw the electoral boundaries of the Melbourne seat of Menzies to "guarantee" they would win it from the Liberal Party, despite a claim online.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) says seat boundary changes are determined by independent redistribution committees, not the government, and they do not consider which party or candidate currently holds an electorate.
The false claims are being made on social media in the wake of Labor's landslide win in the May 3 election, alongside previously debunked claims about the government importing voters.
"Labor flooded the country with over a million migrants in the past four years," an image in a Facebook post reads.
"... and dumped them straight into marginal seats like Forde and Bonner, flipping them.
"They redrew the boundaries in Menzies, turning it from a safe Liberal seat to a guaranteed Labor win."
At the time of writing, Labor's Gabriel Ng was in a position to win the Melbourne seat of Menzies with a small 0.2 per cent swing away from Liberal MP Keith Wolahan, with 85 per cent of the vote counted, according to the AEC Tally Room.
The seat was one of the 34 Victorian federal electorates that underwent an electoral redistribution in 2024, which shifted its boundaries slightly south and west.
However, the AEC says that neither it nor the government determined the new boundaries; they were decided by an independent redistribution committee.
"Australia's electorate redistributions are undertaken not by the AEC but by independent redistribution committees," the spokesperson told AAP FactCheck.
"It is completely false to claim that any political party was involved in redistribution decisions outside of their ability - like all Australians - to make submissions to the committee."
Redistributions are not decided on the basis of which party or candidate holds or is contesting a seat, the AEC added, but on the number of registered voters within each geographical area.
That principle is outlined in Section 24 of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, which sets out the minimum number of seats in each state and the need to ensure electorates are divided by population figures.
Redistributions aim to ensure the number of voters in each electorate in a state or territory is roughly equal, ensuring all votes "carry roughly the same weight", the AEC spokesperson said.
Election analyst Antony Green said at the time of boundary change that Menzies had been flipped into "a notional Labor seat".
However, the seat had already become marginal with a 6.34 per cent swing to Labor in the 2022 election after former coalition minister Kevin Andrews retired as the Menzies MP.
AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, BlueSky, TikTok and YouTube.
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