In 1984 there was a proposal to rename the electorate that is now called Lyons (and was then called Wilmot) "Truganini". For a little while this was being reported and discussed in papers, there was widespread opposition and the change was withdrawn. Wilmot became Lyons instead. I was twelve years old at the time and I remember this in broad outline. But I wonder if the Augmented Electoral Commission's corporate memory goes back this far.
Unfortunately we yet again have had a redistribution proposal for a Tasmanian electorate to have an Aboriginal name where that proposal has been supported out of pretty much nowhere and sparked significant opposition. Last week's boundary announcement has seen 272 written submissions, most of them opposing the proposed replacement of the name Franklin with Tongerlongeter.
I want to contrast this with the process that led to the replacement of the name Denison with Clark. By the time this change was made in the 2017 redistribution, there was a very well organised movement to change Denison to Clark. This proposal had been active in the previous cycle and by the 2017 cycle its adherents included several prominent Tasmanians, judges, current and former politicians and there was even a petition supporting it. It is true that the new name was not endorsed until the Augmented Electoral Commission stage but by that stage the proposal was so well known that anyone with anything to say had said it, and the change of name attracted only three further objections, I don't think any of them from Tasmanians. People might have agreed or disagreed with the change but people knew why the change was being proposed, why Clark if there was a new name, and why there were objections to Denison.
