Mr Porter, who represents the West Australian electorate of Pearce, has gone on sick leave following the furore over historical rape allegations, which he vehemently denies.

The Australian Electoral Commission is putting the final touches to its proposed redistribution reports for WA and Victoria.

With WA set to lose one seat due to population shifts, one option raised with the AEC is to abolish Pearce and redistribute its voters into neighbouring seats, which have low growth projections and are below the voter quota.

Labor says the change is the least disruptive to four other seats in order to achieve the loss of one seat in the state.

The Liberals have proposed the abolition of the seat of Cowan, held by Labor backbencher Anne Aly, which would make major changes to six other seats.

It is understood the Victorian redistribution report, which will see it gain one seat, is due in mid-March and will be closely followed by the WA report a few weeks later.

Australian Associated Press