‘Rewriting history’: AEC slammed over ‘toxic, racial’ electorate name change

Sky News host Rita Panahi accuses the Australian Electoral Commission of pushing “toxic racial politics” after South Australia’s largest electorate is renamed from Grey to O’Donoghue despite majority opposition in public submissions.

“Our electoral system is superior to many countries; it allows for little chicanery & unlike the US we don’t have a significant portion of the population who believe their elections are routinely compromised,” Ms Panahi said.

“But lately the AEC has been getting itself mixed up in toxic racial politics by pushing through electorate name changes. The last thing Australians want is unelected bureaucrats rewriting history,” Ms Panahi said.

“This week the AEC announced that South Australia’s largest electorate would be renamed from Grey, after the colonial governor of the state Sir George Grey, to O’Donoghue, after indigenous rights advocate Lois O’Donoghue.

“The name change went ahead despite the overwhelming majority of submissions to the AEC being against the move.”