The Victorian electorate of Batman will be renamed Cooper, after a campaign to change the name won over the Australian Electoral Commission.
The electorate of Batman, in Melbourne's inner north, was not named after the caped crusader, but after John Batman, an early white settler in the 1800s in what became Australia's second largest city.
While historically Batman had been portrayed as being friendly to the local Indigenous population, accounts of his participation in "roving parties" in Tasmania to hunt down Aboriginal people in the early 19th century has led to a movement calling for the electorate of Batman to have its name changed.
"What is there to be proud of in this man, in the light of all we know now about our history?" one submission to the AEC asked. "How can his name ever be associated with 'democracy'?"
In the electoral commission's final decision, the agency said it had taken the feedback on board and decided a new name was in order.
"The [AEC] considered the arguments advanced by those who argued for and against the name ‘Batman’. Based on the additional information provided, the [AEC] concluded it would be appropriate to rename the electoral division to recognise an Aboriginal leader who had made a significant contribution to Aboriginal and human rights"
The electorate will be renamed in recognition of William Cooper, an Aboriginal political activist who established the Australian Aborigines League, and led a protest against Germany following Kristallnacht in the late 1930s.
The sitting MP for Cooper, Ged Kearney, said she was "thrilled" that the electorate would be named after Cooper.
"I am so thrilled – this is such welcome news. To have my electorate named after William Cooper, an incredible Indigenous leader who spent his lifetime working to advance the rights of First Nations peoples is the greatest honour," she said in a statement.
Kearney said that Cooper's great nephew, Uncle Phil, was overjoyed to have his family recognised.
In other news, Liberal MP Sarah Henderson won't be the member for Cox.
The AEC also decided against renaming her Victorian seat of Corangamite to Cox, after May Cox, a teacher, surf lifesaver, and founder of the Learn to Swim program in the state.
The AEC noted that 120 people had raised an objection to the name, including that the name was "an unfortunate double-entendre" that would open the electorate and the MP representing the electorate to ridicule.
Henderson raised objections to the name change, and it will now stay as Corangamite.
.@SHendersonMP: I've already been subjected to a bit of ridicule about the possible name change. MORE: https://t.co/0oLRoY1Wxl #Newsday #auspol https://t.co/X51qIwe7Td
The AEC did not buy into the argument that Australians would just make jokes about the name Cox.
"It is unreasonable to suggest that worthy individuals who have names that a small section of the community may consider suggestive should not be recognised, and notes that objections which argue this are disrespectful to May Cox, her family and those whose surname is ‘Cox’," The AEC said.
"The [AEC] considers Australia a sufficiently mature and open-minded society to recognise the achievements of a worthy individual over any subjective innuendo in name."
Nevertheless, it was decided that it was important to retain the Aboriginal name for the electorate. Corangamite means "bitter", in regards to the water in Corangamite Lake.