By Callum Ludwig
The Voices 4 Casey group has put forward a petition for the federal electorate of Casey to have a new name as part of the Victorian federal redistribution process.
With the electorate almost certain to have survived being abolished, calls for it to be renamed have ramped up after the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) acknowledged but chose not to act on initial requests in its draft redistribution.
Voices 4 Casey President Dr Ani Wierenga said what they’ve noticed is that the current name is confusing and doesn’t reflect the electorate itself.
“One of their own rules for the way that electorates are named is that they shouldn’t be confusing and that they shouldn’t be conflicting with each other, but what we have heard in our listening process is that when you talk about living in Casey, people will often think immediately of the City of Casey and the City of Casey is not even within the electorate of Casey,” she said.
“Lord [Richard] Casey didn’t live here either, so it is a point of inclusion and a point of clarity that we’re looking for here.
“It’d be great if people could identify with their electorate, would be great if people could actually know that they’re in the electorate and while that name is replicating a city that’s close by, it is quite confusing for people.”
In the two most recent steps in the redistribution process, the suggestions and comments on suggestions, there was a total of 17 individuals or groups who proposed that the name of the electorate be changed to Barak in honour of the last traditional ngurungaeta of the Wurundjeri-willam clan William Barak. There has been no suggestions or comments calling for the name of Casey to be retained.
Dr Wierenga said the name of Barak is certainly something that the Voices 4 Casey group can put their shoulder to and let the AEC know that the issue is not dead and worth revisiting.
“Where there is change, there is opportunity and we know that there’s been a groundswell of people putting forth suggestions and ideas and that there is a fairly strong community sentiment behind the change,” she said.
“Of course we would need to liaise with the local elders and ask permission, keeping that conversation live and engaged with our local Indigenous groups is important, but certainly it’s one of the options that seems incredibly sensible because Barak was anchored within this area, very broadly respected and it seems to be a really sensible way ahead.
“What I’m hearing loudest from the feedback that’s come in is that people are really wanting something that represents the area and that that’s the strongest point, it needs to have some meaning for local people.”
Yarra Ranges Council and the Millgrove Resident’s Action Group are other organisations to lend their support to the Barak name while current Casey MP Aaron Violi also told the Star Mail in June that his office had noticed the confusion with the City of Casey and that Barak would be an ‘appropriate’ name if the AEC decided to change it in the future given Barak’s ‘connection to our community and the strong Indigenous community’.
Richard Casey is a former Governor-General of Australia who represented the seats of Corio and La Trobe during his political career, eventually settling and living on a farm in Berwick. He never lived nor represented what is now the Casey electorate.
Voices 4 Casey’s petition had 185 signatures at the time of print, with the deadline for objections to the AEC coming down at 6pm on on Friday 28 June.
Dr Wierenga said alongside the petition, Voices 4 Casey is building on their work ahead of the 2025 election, buoyed by the likelihood of the electorate not being abolished and commitments of campaign funding from Climate 200 and other sources being confirmed.
“There’s something rather wonderful about having an electorate that crosses from hills to valleys to farms to suburbs and encompasses all of those different slices of Australia, so it’s really good to hear we will be able to grow that and we’re wanting to express a warm welcome to those who might be coming across to be part of this electorate,” she said.
“There’s some really lovely networks forming, some really good activities, some really good conversations about the things that matter to people it’s really nice to be able to continue to build on that work and to be able to reach it out just a little bit further.
“There’s that wonderful promise of funding there from Climate 200 and it is accompanied by some other lovely donations from a range of sources and that’s heartening because it takes a lot of energy to mobilise a community and to think about representation.”
