South Australian Electorate of Grey Renamed O'Donoghue After Aboriginal Leader

South Australia's largest federal electorate will be renamed in honour of Aboriginal leader Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue, despite opposition from the local Liberal MP.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) confirmed on Monday that the regional seat of Grey, named after former SA governor Sir George Grey, would now be called O'Donoghue.

The electorate covers more than 92 per cent of the state and has been named Grey since it was created in 1903. It is currently held by Liberal MP Tom Venning.

Dr O'Donoghue was the first Aboriginal person to train as a nurse at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and had a celebrated career in the public service, which included being a senior member of the team that negotiated Australia's historic Native Title legislation in 1993.

She passed away in February 2024, aged 91.

Sir Grey was a Portuguese-born colonial explorer, soldier and administrator who governed the near-bankrupt colony of South Australia into prosperity from 1841 to 1845 before moving to govern the British colony in New Zealand.

The AEC said Dr O'Donoghue's connection to the APY Lands and her achievements provided "strong reasoning" to rename the seat in her honour.

The O'Donoghue family this morning welcomed the name change.

"Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue was born, raised, worked, and lived within the electorate for much of her life, and over many decades made substantial contributions to the region across health, education, and social justice rights," the family said in a statement released by the Lowitja O'Donoghue Foundation.

"She always considered it to be her home, no matter where her career path took her."

'We can honour her in other ways', Liberal MP says

The renaming of Grey was the most controversial element of the AEC's redistribution of South Australian federal electorates.

After floating it in March, the AEC said it received 310 submissions about the renaming: 75 in support and 235 against.

The AEC said it considered the arguments in support of renaming the electorate to be "well detailed, informative, convincing and ultimately persuasive".

"This contrasted with most of the submissions objecting to the renaming of the electorate," the AEC said.

"Amongst other things, the arguments for renaming the electorate O'Donoghue noted Dr O'Donoghue's significant contribution to communities, including within the electoral boundaries of Grey, the State of South Australia, and Australia as a whole.

Liberal MP Tom Venning said a majority of his constituents wanted Grey's name to remain.

He accused the AEC of "not necessarily listening to the people of Grey".

"He's a founding father of this state and country people are used to that name," he said.

"The submission from the AEC this morning said that a majority of submitters did not want the name changed, and I think it's disappointing that that has occurred," he said.

Rebranding is costly

Mr Venning said renaming a state electorate — or a future new SA federal seat — were among the other ways to honour Dr O'Donoghue.

He said rebranding his electorate office and other materials would now cost "tens of thousands" of dollars.

"Only at the start of this year was my third electorate office rebadged with the 'Grey, Tom Venning' branding, so that will all need to be changed as well," he said, adding that the cost of rebranding one of his four electorate offices was around $3,500.

Election analyst Ben Raue, founder of elections blog The Tally Room, said the Grey renaming was part of a broader shift from the AEC.

"The AEC for a while now has been undergoing a bit of a practice of reconsidering the names of people who don't have much of a connection to Australia," he said.

"This is a bit of a continuation of more seats named after women, seats named after Indigenous people and getting rid of some of these names of people in the early 19th century who didn't stick around long in Australia."

Mr Raue highlighted a similar AEC proposal to rename the Tasmanian seat of Franklin to Tongerlongeter, after an Aboriginal resistance warrior.

Only minor changes to SA electoral map

The Grey name change was part of the AEC's redistribution of South Australian seats ahead of the next federal election, which has only resulted in minor changes to the electoral map.

Just 24,000 people are shifting electorates, according to the AEC: less than 2 per cent of the enrolled population.

The boundaries of O'Donoghue are unchanged, with a proposal to shift the new Riverlea housing development from the Labor seat of Spence into O'Donoghue abandoned.

Mr Raue said O'Donoghue was "probably" the most likely SA seat to fall to One Nation.

He highlighted that it was the SA seat where One Nation did best at the 2025 federal election.

The 2026 state election also saw One Nation win two seats that overlap with O'Donoghue: the Yorke Peninsula electorate of Narungga and Mid North seat of Ngadjuri.

Independent MP Rebekha Sharkie's seat of Mayo has lost the City of Mitcham to neighbouring Boothby, held by Labor MP Louise Miller-Frost, and Callington and Kanmantoo to Barker, held by Liberal MP Tony Pasin.

"There's no seats that have been abolished, there's no seats where the MP isn't going to be in a position to hold the seat after the next election, and the changes in the margin are all pretty minor," Mr Raue said.

In the northern suburbs, Labor MP Tony Zappia's seat of Makin will gain part of the City of Salisbury from neighbouring Spence, held by fellow Labor MP Matt Burnell.

Spence and Makin are considered Labor's two most vulnerable seats to One Nation in SA, after the right-wing party recorded significant swings in the northern suburbs at the March state election.

One senior Labor source suggested the Makin-Spence redistribution could consolidate One Nation's challenge in Spence, but overall it had a "minimal effect".