Seat of the week: McPherson

The Gold Coast seat of McPherson has been in conservative hands since its creation in 1949, and has been served by a succession of low-key members since 1980.

Teal numbers indicate booths with two-party majorities for the Liberal National Party. Red numbers would indicate booths with two-party majorities for Labor, if there were any. Click for larger image. Map boundaries courtesy of Ben Raue at The Tally Room.

McPherson is the southernmost coastal electorate in Queensland, covering the Gold Coast from Coolangatta at the New South Wales border north through Tugun and Palm Beach to Burleigh Heads, and extending inland to Robina and Merrimac in the north and the semi-rural Tallebudgera and Currumbin river valleys further south. An area of intensive and ongoing population growth, the most recent redistribution before the 2010 election saw it lose 5600 voters at the inland end of the electorate to the newly created seat of Wright without it needing to receive any new territory in return. The regional is demographically unremarkable on most measures, excepting a lack of ethnic diversity and a slightly above-average median age.

The electorate was created with the expansion of parliament in 1949, prior to which the Gold Coast had been accommodated by Moreton, which was pushed over time into its present position in southern Brisbane. McPherson has since been anchored in the state’s south-eastern corner, at first extending much further inland to include Beaudesert and Warwick. Its inaugural member was Arthur Fadden, a leader of the Country Party who briefly served as Prime Minister after Robert Menzies’ resignation in August 1941. After six weeks in the role he was defeated in parliament when he lost the support of two key independents, although the beleagured United Australia Party continued to support him as Opposition Leader until the 1943 election defeat. Fadden moved to the newly created seat in 1949 after previously serving as member for Darling Downs, which has since been re-named as Groom. He held the seat until his retirement in 1958, at which point he was succeeded by another Country Party member, Charles Barnes.

The rapid development of the Gold Coast changed the electorate’s complexion in the decades following the war, drawing it away from its rural base and towards the coast and weakening its identity as a Country Party stronghold. When Charles Barnes retired in 1972, Liberal candidate Eric Robinson won the seat after narrowly edging out the Country Party candidate in the preference count. The electorate was at the centre of a political controversy in 1978 when it was alleged that Robinson, then a minister in Malcolm Fraser’s government, had sought to influence the electoral redistribution commissioners after they determined to change the electorate’s name to Gold Coast, which under the terms of the coalition agreement would have entitled the National Country Party to contest the “new” seat. A royal commission into the matter cleared Robinson of wrongdoing but found another minister, Reg Withers (who had won fame as the Opposition’s Senate leader during the 1975 crisis), to have acted improperly. This resulted in Withers’ dismissal by Fraser, to the chagrin of many in the Liberal Party. Robinson went on to resign from the ministry the following year over an unrelated falling-out with Fraser.

Robinson died in January 1981 and was succeeded at the ensuing by-election by Liberal candidate Peter White. White won an easy victory with help from Labor preferences over National Country Party candidate Glenister Sheil, who had resigned from the Senate to run at the by-election and would later return to it in 1984. Sheil had won a position in the ministry in 1977 only to lose it before being sworn in for expressing support for South Africa’s apartheid system. Peter White held the seat until his retirement at the 1990 election, by which time the National Party was no longer competitive in the area at the federal level. He was succeeded by John Bradford, who went on to quit the Liberal Party in 1998 to join Fred Nile’s Christian Democratic Party, standing unsuccessfully as its Queensland Senate candidate at the election later that year. The seat then passed on to Margaret May, who won Liberal preselection from a field that included former Brisbane lord mayor Sallyanne Atkinson.

When May announced her retirement ahead of the 2010 election, Liberal front-bencher Peter Dutton sought to move to the seat in preference to his ultra-marginal existing seat of Dickson in Brisbane’s outer north. However, it quickly became apparent that local party operatives who had been jockeying for the succession were not going to be deterred, despite Dutton’s move having the backing of John Howard and then-Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull. The result was a rebuff for Dutton, who was said to have come within a handful of votes of victory on the first round of the local preselection ballot but was ultimately defeated by Karen Andrews, a Gold Coast businesswoman and chair of the party’s local federal electorate council. The prospect of the party’s state executive intervening by refusing to ratify the result was promptly ruled out amid talk of a potential rebellion in the local party. Dutton was accordingly compelled to remain in Dickson, which he had no trouble retaining amid the much-changed political circumstances which prevailed by the time the election was held. Andrews meanwhile picked up successive swings of 1.6% and 2.7% to hold the seat by a margin of 13.0% after the 2013 election.

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.

2,218 comments on “Seat of the week: McPherson”

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  1. RUAwake
    I thought the usual response, in good governance, when you are offered a bribe is to report it firstly to your board and secondly to the police.

    Of course I have forgotten that such rules do not exist of the alternate universe of the NSW right.

    The tragedy for NSW is that these people had their hands on the tiller of state.

  4. rua
    [Ms RU said, wow who is wearing the too short skirts for the occasion. (Not Margie by the way). So maybe they need to learn a bit?]
    No need to worry

    The Great Hypocrite himself said it was, “fitting” [that the Crown was still a] symbol of continuity and decency in public life“.

  5. [rua @96 – at their age they can get away with it.]

    No they showed a lack of style. It was a Prince who was arriving, not Prince.

  6. 85

    They are not obliged to accept them. Not even the Scots are. As bank notes of private banks, the Scottish and Northern Irish Bank Notes are not legal tender anywhere. Scotland and Northern Ireland have no legal tender bank notes.

  7. Clearly Tone has read too many history books.

    Sure the royals play a role but lets not pretend that they are some how special.

  8. http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/credlins-star-chamber-rewarding-liberal-party-loyalists-20131004-2uzyu.html

    Prime Minister Tony Abbott refers to her as ”the boss” and Peta Credlin is proving why, stamping her authority on the make up of the government.

    Fairfax Media has learned Ms Credlin, who steered Mr Abbott’s path to The Lodge as his chief-of-staff, is deciding every government appointment from top ministerial aides right down to the electorate staff of new MPs.

    She sits at the head of the government’s ”star chamber”, which has already knocked back some applicants put forward by cabinet ministers.

    Sitting on the star chamber panel are federal Liberal Party director Brian Loughnane – Ms Credlin’s husband – along with John Howard’s former chief of staff, Tony Nutt, and ministers Michael Ronaldson and Kevin Andrews.

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/credlins-star-chamber-rewarding-liberal-party-loyalists-20131004-2uzyu.html#ixzz2gptz8aPh

  10. All governments undertake that sort of recruitment process.

    Its fine as long as it doesn’t go to the extreme which could strangle it

  11. Be still my beating heart
    ___________
    Prince Harry is on the loose in Sydney tonight after a long day with the oldies…a lusty young Prince on the lookout,and we have a Monarchist PM with three young daughters..what a chance what a night !
    Perhaps a night out with the Prince …then a royal romance to delight the tabloids(well Our Mary did it !)..then a Royal Wedding to Unite the House of Windsor to the Liberal Party…what a dream…and then finally…a Royal Princeling called Prince Tony…be still my beating heart !

  15. Allan

    Congratulations on the birthday.

    [Enjoy your APS super! – best investment I ever made and I turn the big 65 on Monday, although I actually got out of the PS years ago when the going was good!]

    Yep. I asked for a redundancy in the 1986 clean-out: P Brazil said ‘stay and suffer’!

  17. beemer

    The
    [“Mr Nutt assures the staffer that the Liberal Party family will look after him, and that he knows people in the mining industry who might have a job for him.”]

    Shows what is going on, Abbott is helpless unable to stop it.

  18. My Say

    Part of the CoS job is to assist the PM in setting out the recruitment process for senior departmental staff.

    She would be working in collaboration with her boss the PM.

  20. Psephos,

    If I’m not wrong and I have my memories mixed up, that’s John St, Lilydale? The Lilydale Marketplace has been greatly expanded and the Safeway there is massive now. It also leads to the largest single campus government school in the state, where I was a student.

    Also, the photo of Parramatta makes it look like Box Hill. Your choises are quite interesting. However, I still would have thought Knox Shopping Centre would be more telling. The competition between it, Chadstone and a few others (Eastland also wants to expand all the way to the Hwy too).

  21. Tom @ 106

    That’s true but you will still get people who come out with the phrase “but they are legal tender” and why I suggest not taking them south. I must say I have never had any problems with Scottish notes during my many visits to Scotland. England now……….. 🙂

  24. [Also, the photo of Parramatta makes it look like Box Hill. Your choices are quite interesting. ]

    No doubt Parramatta does look like Box Hill. The series confirms that most Australian suburbs look alike.

    [However, I still would have thought Knox Shopping Centre would be more telling. ]

    I didn’t want too many shopping centres.

  28. OH is watching the military hype on ABC.

    I was looking for the 3 Star Whatever ……. Surely he’s there …… There might be an Indonesian fishing boat disguised as an old sailer.

    And wouldn’t tonight be a great opportunity to have a demo on Sydney harbour and national TV of boat turning and towing .

    Perhaps CC can call one of his contacts who is in Credlin’s ear, and arrange it.

  29. [so u think credlin should chose

    all staff and heads of departments then do you
    mex]

    Why not? Do you have something against women in power?

  30. I see Abbott is slobbering all over Harry- poor prince will have to get a good dry cleaner to erase the spittle…- how embarrassing .

  31. This stuff about Credlin is amazing, considering it’s exactly what Rudd did in 2007 when he tried to control all staff appointments and allowed Alistair Jordan to give orders to Cabinet ministers. The result was complete chaos and mounting resentment against Rudd and his camarilla.

  32. Oh My Dog

    How much is all this Sydney Harbour stuff on telly costing.

    Another broken promise for Boerwar’s list. The waste has not been stopped.

    How on earth can we afford this in the midst of a budget emergency.

    And more to the point, who is funding Brandis and Joyce so that they can attend and “network”?

    And the music is all over the place like a moll at a christening …… i’m pretty sure Prissy did the choreography for it to be like this.

  35. [This stuff about Credlin is amazing, considering it’s exactly what Rudd did in 2007 when he tried to control all staff appointments and allowed Alistair Jordan to give orders to Cabinet ministers. The result was complete chaos and mounting resentment against Rudd and his camarilla.]

    Seems like a symptom of the ailment of politics. You cannot trust many on “your side” so you trust those who are closest.

    How to remove it? Is Solomon about?

  36. Serious question about the TPP- will it make anti syphoning legislation subject to challenge by foreign corporations?If so will the TPP benefit Murdoch? I presume it will endanger the PBS..

  37. [Another broken promise for Boerwar’s list. The waste has not been stopped. ]

    I haven’t been watching the coverage, but can just imagine the fuss and carry on.

  42. [How much is all this Sydney Harbour stuff on telly costing.]

    The whole thing must have cost tens of millions but that’s OK we are in panem et circenses times.

  45. any way the Abbott girls are Catholics and so no wedding plans could even be comtemplated with the Windsors (so much for monarchist Tony)

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