A South Australian federal electorate has been renamed after a female aboriginal leader despite a majority of public submissions opposing the change.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) announced on Monday that the seat of Grey, which covers 92% of the state and was created in 1903, will become the Division of O’Donoghue in honour of Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue, a prominent advocate for aboriginal issues.
The electorate of Grey was named after Sir George Grey, a British explorer and former Governor of South Australia, who played a major role in shaping the colony’s early government and institutions that would later form part of Australia’s democratic foundations.
The AEC said while Grey had been influential during his time in Australia, he had “spent a comparatively small part of his life in Australia” and had “been honoured for many years for the part he had played in South Australia’s colonial history”.
The decision followed a public consultation process that received 310 submissions regarding the proposed name change. Of those, 75 supported renaming the electorate, while 235 opposed the move.
Despite the majority of submissions rejecting the proposal, the AEC said those in support were better argued, and chose to rename the electorate after Dr O’Donoghue, who died in 2024 at the age of 91.
“The augmented Electoral Commission considered the arguments contained in support of the proposal to rename the electorate O’Donoghue were 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. They provided strong and convincing reasons to rename the electorate in her honour.
“Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue was the first Indigenous nurse at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and first woman to hold a position of Regional Director in a federal government department. She also worked in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health advocacy and was a prominent First Nations leader in the 20th and 21st centuries.”
The decision has sparked backlash, including from the British Australian Community (BAC), Australia’s largest Anglo-Celtic advocacy group.
After floating it in March, the AEC said it received 310 submissions about the renaming: 75 in support and 235 against.
They had an overwhelming avalanche of submissions against, yet the AEC just decided to change it anyway.
The AEC itself can’t even live up to its democratic… pic.twitter.com/SUl4lrqZfm
— British Australian Community (@Brit_Aus_Com) July 21, 2026
“They had an overwhelming avalanche of submissions against, yet the AEC just decided to change it anyway,” the BAC wrote.
“The AEC itself can’t even live up to its democratic ideals. ‘Modern Australia’ is illegitimate.”
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott also criticised the decision, arguing historical electorate names should not be removed without stronger public support.
“This is precisely the kind of elite-driven policy change which makes Australians uneasy about who is really running our country – the elected and accountable politicians or unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats,” Mr Abbott said.
He said the decision was “another example” of “the green-left official establishment trying to change the way we think about ourselves”.
Liberal MP Tom Venning, who represents Grey, also opposed the change, saying many of his constituents wanted the historic name retained, and that the change would impose unnecessary costs.
“This decision will leave many of my constituents feeling like their views were not reflected,” Mr Venning told ABC News.
The renaming follows a recent AEC proposal to rename Tasmania’s federal electorate of Franklin to Tongerlongeter, after an aboriginal war leader who massacred women and children.
The Franklin proposal attracted similar criticism, with the BAC describing the change as an “unnecessary and hostile erasure of Australia’s Anglo-Celtic foundations”, and inappropriate in light of his group’s violence against British settlers in the Black War of the 1820s and 30s.
The Grey name change has been confirmed and will be formally determined on October 8, but the Franklin proposal is still awaiting a final determination.
Header image: Left, Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue (lowitja Institute). Right, Sir George Grey (National Library of New Zealand).
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