A seat bigger than France!
Boundary changes in Queensland has seen the Mount Isa seat double in size to 570,500 square kms. This is 20,000 kms larger than all of France!
I used to think Damien O’Connor had it bad with a 12 hour drive from the south to the north of his West Coast-Tasman electorate.
In terms of the size of NZ, the seat is twice as large as NZ!
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Tags: Australia
August 21st, 2008 at 10:33 am
“This is 20,000 kms larger than all of France!”
Yeah, but without the French.
August 21st, 2008 at 10:37 am
Another interesting comparison is the MP in the NZ Parliament that has the Chatham Islands included in their constituency.
August 21st, 2008 at 10:38 am
And the British holiday makers!
France is very beautiful, and a pleasure to visit.
Rheims is an amazing city to visit.
The worst place is Paris!
Mount Isa is just a bit hot!
August 21st, 2008 at 10:54 am
“A seat bigger than France” – Initial thought was that this might have been disparaging post about either Parekura Horomia or Gerry Brownlee
August 21st, 2008 at 11:14 am
That’s nothing…
Lingiari (covers all of NT apart from Darwin) is 1,350,000. That’s about the size of the UK, Ireland, France, the Benelux countries, and Germany.
And Kalgoorlie (covers just about all of WA) is 2,300,000 sqkm. You could fit 4 Mt Isas in to Kalgoorlie. Or 9 New Zealands.
August 21st, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Great place if you want to practise your banjo without the neighbours complaining…
August 21st, 2008 at 12:29 pm
getstaffed – I saw the headline and assumed that Judith Tizard was in the news again.
August 21st, 2008 at 12:34 pm
“A seat bigger than France”
Richer too I think!
August 21st, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Just seeing the word France pisses me off
August 21st, 2008 at 1:51 pm
If I’m not mistaken I think that Kalgoorlie in WA is still the largest electoral district in the world…
August 21st, 2008 at 1:51 pm
West Coast Tasman is 38,042 square kilometres but it’s probably easier to service than Clutha Southland (38,247 sq kms) and Waitaki (34,888 sq kms) because it’s long and narrow with most communities on or near the only main road.
CS & W have many different communities reached by many different roads which means a lot more toing and froing.
Stilll, they’re not as bad as Te Tai Tonga at 161,443 sq kms.
For the record NZ’s smallest electorate is Epsom at 23 sq kms.
August 21st, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Ah. Travelling Salesman problem (such an apt title in this context). Solve that one, and you’ll be rich
August 21st, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Another absurd point about Aussie and all the space it has, is that it is 2% “urbanised” and yet “Smart Growth” zoning policies has pushed their property affordability index up to the worst in the world, ahead of even the UK, which is 10% urbanised. And the UK is regarded as Europe’s “horror story” in that respect. Germany, 15% urbanised, has still managed to achieve a property affordability index similar to the USA.
NZ, my friends, is in a similar category to Aussie………
Anyone want “links”?
August 21st, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Russ Hinze – how come you died before they had an electorate than needed you? And you also had the good luck to die before the corruption trial was scheduled!
August 21st, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Boundary changes won’t save Gordon Brown from yet another humiliating By-election defeat. Conference season is almost upon us as well in the UK. The Gord will have to give an extra special performance to save his job.
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:02 am
Don’t forget Northland as part of the mix. Now stretches from Cape Reinga down to and including Wellsford just 60k from Auckland. Add in the west/east mix from the Hokianga (and the myriad of small and isolated communities there) to the Bay of Islands and to travel the electorate by vehicle touching every community over 200 would take 24 hours assuming of course you could synchronise with the Rawene and Russell ferries.
But as Cpl Jones said “its a good life”.