Seat of the week: Petrie

Petrie covers a narrow strip of Brisbane’s northern suburbs from Carseldine north to Burpengary. This includes three distinct areas: at the centre, the Redcliffe Peninsula; further north along the coast, Deception Bay and the developing suburb of North Lakes; and, on the southern side of Pine River which separates the Moreton Bay local government area from Brisbane, the suburbs of Bracken Ridge, Fitzgibbon and Carseldine. The redistribution before the 2010 election added the Deception Bay area (previously in Longman) and transferred coastal suburbs at the southern end to Lilley, which boosted the Labor margin by 2.1%.

The electorate was created with the enlargement of parliament in 1949 and held consistently by the Liberals until 1983, barring a surprise defeat in 1961. It again changed hands from Labor to Liberal in 1984 and back again in 1987. Gary Johns held the seat for Labor for the next three terms, until the Queensland Labor wipeout of 1996 powered a 9.8% swing to Liberal candidate Teresa Gambaro. Gambaro’s margin was reduced to 0.8% when the elastic snapped back to Labor by 7.5% in 1998, but she was strengthened by successive swings of 2.7% in 2001 and 4.4% in 2004. Gambaro had a 7.9% buffer going into the 2007 election, but it was not enough to save her from a 9.5% swing to Labor’s Yvette D’Ath, who had previously been an official with the Right faction Australian Workers Union. Gambaro was back at the 2010 election, when she unseated Labor’s Arch Bevis in Brisbane.

A Liberal National Party preselection last weekend was won by Luke Howarth, managing director of Sandgate Pest Control and a past candidate for the state seat of Sandgate (which is actually located over the boundary in Lilley). Howarth prevailed out of a preselection field of 10, of whom the presumed front-runner had been John Connolly, former Wallabies coach and unsuccessful state candidate for Nicklin, who had the endorsement of John Howard.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

1,470 comments on “Seat of the week: Petrie”

Comments Page 26 of 30
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  1. I’m fairly sure the many people who lurk on PB, as I mostly do these days, would be well and truly fed-up with Confessions’ monotony. It doesn’t really matter whether you prefer Gillard or Rudd, the endless carping and abuse of those with a different view is enough to annoy anyone.

  2. [so I hope confessions was making a joke]

    The right to arm bears comment sailed over the heads of the angry and the permanently indignant, clearly.

  4. Jake my dear, it started about 12 months ago only 🙂

    Any way im a big hockey fan

    I

    Our lot all playec one still does

  5. Jake

    [ It doesn’t really matter whether you prefer Gillard or Rudd, the endless carping and abuse of those with a different view is enough to annoy anyone.]

    My thoughts exactly!

  6. Boerwar
    There is a local (long retired) local landholder who has been restoring diversity in native flora and fauna. He has feral-fenced a large part of his property and is gradually getting native grasses to predominate. Five years ago he introduced five bandicoots and some bettongs and last month they did a count and found more than 50 bandicoots.
    BTW super is OUT, fire is useful and sometimes the land is so ruined by grazing, etc that it requires poisoning to get back to a relatively clean slate.
    All this is new to me so I’m looking forward to it.
    Next month we are going on a five day field trip to the Wimmera and the SE SA/Vic border area to see what certain similar projects there have done.

  8. [Prof Clive Palmer ‏@CliveFPalmer
    Never any support from me for James Ashby. I’ve known Peter Slipper 40yrs. He’s a man of integrity. This issue best left for the courts.]
    I’m making an assumption this is the “real” Clive. But does anyone know??

  9. Jake @ 1251

    It doesn’t really matter whether you prefer Gillard or Rudd,

    Actually, my dream ‘team’ was the one we had, Rudd and Gillard.

    It appears to me they had complementary skills.

  10. Bemused i have mot spoke to u in weeks
    In fact i usually avoid this place like the plague when your here,
    But u comment on what people post when they are not posting to u

  11. Had an interesting experience today in that for the first time in probably seven or eight years we bought the newspaper in order to read a specific article in the weekend magazine. On other occasions I have glanced at the papers provided in waiting rooms etc. but it suddenly struck me today how much more I enjoyed the online newspaper experience.It’s all in colour for a start, much more up to date and everthing is an easy click . The newspaper is all grey and boring, what news there is is old and out of date before the paper hits the streets and I am not interested in the opinion of the so called journalists at all anymore. It suddenly occurred to me that I have grown comfortable with the electronic media and how much more exciting and vibrant it is. I have always said that I was never really comfortable with online newspapers etc. and that I didn’t really enjoy looking at a screen all that much. Not true at all anymore.

  12. [the endless carping and abuse of those with a different view is enough to annoy anyone.]

    I ignore most people and their abuse, including the haters and baiters like bemused. I tolerate the opinions of those I disagree with, mostly by simply ignoring them and scrolling by.

    But a comment about tourists trespassing on my property suddenly infers an intolerance of people with different views?

    Kiddo, you need to get out more.

  13. Jake

    I think you’re a teensy bit unreasonable to pick on Confessions. I can think of several far more repetitive, boring posters. Perhaps you only read certain times of day 🙂

  14. Glen.

    If Brough loses 10% to Slipper he gets 36% of the vote on a good day. You better hope Brough knows how to suck up to a Speaker.

  17. I’m making an assumption this is the “real” Clive. But does anyone know??

    lizzie, that was the real Clive.

  18. my say @ 1260

    Bemused i have mot spoke to u in weeks
    In fact i usually avoid this place like the plague when your here,
    But u comment on what people post when they are not posting to u

    No need to avoid me.
    I comment on things lots of other people post, just as they comment on what I post.
    But you have called many posters here ‘liberals’ when they are nothing of the sort. I object to that.

  23. Folks
    Here they go again

    See u after the olympics

    Makes more sence

    Except

    Wish it was on sbs

    BK have u heard of coast care

    It may interest u

  24. [If Brough loses 10% to Slipper he gets 36% of the vote on a good day.]

    As you’ve already mentioned, the preselections will be illustrative.

    All those hand wringing about the Qld state election result forget that there is no OPV at the federal level.

  25. [ BK
    Posted Sunday, July 29, 2012 at 6:41 pm | Permalink
    Boerwar
    I’ve just been roped in to chair the technical committee for a $1.5m federal grant project for the restoration of native grassy ground cover and its diversity in our area. Should be interesting.]

    Ha. Congrats. I could probably work out who you are now. 😀

    Many of my favourite boffins are grassy-groundcover guys.

  27. I’m copying this for those who might understand the reference by Latika. I’m assuming she’s mocking?
    [Latika Bourke ‏@latikambourke
    Lulz! Wyatt Roy is so Prince Joffrey. ]

  30. [Jake

    I think you’re a teensy bit unreasonable to pick on Confessions. I can think of several far more repetitive, boring posters. Perhaps you only read certain times of day]

    lizzie,

    Perhaps.

    Also, I’m fairly sure that twitter account is Clive Palmer’s.

  34. BK
    Lucky you. We have put in around 10,000 plants and it is profoundly satisfying to think that long after we have gone there will be trees, shrubs and grasses, and all sorts of beasties enjoying life as a result of our efforts.

  35. lizzie @ 1277
    Prince Joffrey appears to be an actor with a resemblance to Wyatt Roy.

    Google is your friend 😉

  44. [We have put in around 10,000 plants and it is profoundly satisfying to think that long after we have gone there will be trees, shrubs and grasses, and all sorts of beasties enjoying life as a result of our efforts.]

    I’ve done the same with my property. It broke my heart to hear the previous owner boasting that he personally cut down acres and acres of old growth forest in order to create paddocks for cattle. As if this is something to be proud of.

    I’ve set about trying to restore the damage he did, but it will take years. Hence my objection to tourists sauntering in and wrecking it all.

  47. That’s an interesting article on Rudd groupies.

    [The Alliance has 1000 followers on Twitter and the Rudd Factor has 1700 followers.

    “There’s something about him that makes him easy to relate to.”

    “He just seems like your average joe,” she says of her support for Mr Rudd.”]

    Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/rudd-groupies-get-their-man-20120728-232uq.html#ixzz2203cMULz

    I know why people are attracted to him, it’s his looks, he reminds us Harry Potter, Mr Sheen and The Milky Bar Kid, all those faces have similar features, the cute boyish looks of Harry and The Milky Bar Kid, then you feel reassured and secure with a face like Mr Sheen.

    Kevin Rudd and the milky bar kid an uncanny resemblance.

    It must be a certain type of personality that is vulnerable to being infatuated to the superficial looks of a person like Kevin Rudd.

  48. William

    I beg to disagree

    Confessions is often ill tempered and never allows others opinions. She is the one who almost always starts the “evil Rudd” stuff to which others quite reasonably react. Take a good hard look at the posts and I think you will see much justice for Jake’s comment.

    Just because you often agree with Confessions does not mean she is either right or fair minded

  50. William Bowe @ 1290

    Oh, come on, mate! Surely you are saying that in jest.

    As soon as anyone on this site gives a contrary opinion to her (particularly the leadership issue) confessions goes for the jugular full of abuse and fury!!

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