Wright was created at the 2010 election as the latest new seat to be gained by Queensland as part of its ongoing population boom, taking on territory from the Gold Coast electorates of McPherson, Moncrieff and Fadden together with rural areas out to the New South Wales border, which had previously been in Forde and to a smaller extent Rankin. The Gold Coast area had historically been covered by Moreton and later by McPherson and Moncrieff, which were respectively created with the enlargements of parliament in 1949 and 1984, while the north-western areas were covered by Darling Downs and its successor Groom after 1984.
The electorate is lacking a clear centre, combining the inland edge of the Gold Coast and Brisbane’s southern hinterland, Warrego Highway towns to the east of Toowoomba, and rural territory in between. All of its component areas have traditionally been solid for the conservatives, but double-digit swings in Forde and Blair at the 2007 election gave the seat a relatively modest notional Liberal/Nationals margin of 4.8% going into the 2010 election. This has since been boosted by successive swings of 6.4% and 1.7% at the 2010 and 2013 elections.
Wright has been held since its inception by Scott Buchholz, who had previously been chief-of-staff to Barnaby Joyce. Although his background was with the Nationals, the seat had been reserved for the Liberals under the terms of Liberal National Party merger and he sits in the Liberal party room in Canberra. The LNP’s original choice for the seat had been Hajnal Ban, a Logan City councillor who ran for the Nationals in for Forde at the 2007 election. However, Ban was dumped for failing to disclose Civil and Administrative Tribunal action against her over her use of power-of-attorney over the finances of an elderly former council colleague, for which a conviction was recorded against her in 2012. An unsuccessful contender at both preselections was Cameron Thompson, who held Blair for the Liberals from 1998 until his defeat in 2007. Buchholz attained the position of government whip following the election of the Abbott government in September 2013.
Centre,
$25K starting salary I have already stated this.
When the unions have a choice between having someone on centrelink and someone in a job, the unions always prefer the centrelink option.
Sean Tisme@991
What I’m suggesting with a $25K pa wage is taking someone off the unemployment queue… off centrelink… into the workforce.. training them… so they can work their way up.
If your asking me to give 40 hours of my labour to with you but with not even enough to feed and clothe my family in return, you really do live in cloud cukoo land.
A family would be better off not working, than slaving at the wages you propose, cheap skate.
No, I think people should be paid a fair wage.
The minimum wage is not “Top Dollar”
P.S, you claim to work in IT services, good luck trying to employ any half decent Techie at the peanuts you’re proposing, just because you’re a monkey doesn’t mean the rest of us are.
Anyways, off to the evil pub to have a few evil beers and a few evil bets.
[When the unions have a choice between having someone on centrelink and someone in a job, the unions always prefer the centrelink option.]
Yeah, unions hate having members.
Sean Tisme@997
Which would mean that they would pay you a rather large amount, relative to the service you provide. Ergo, your reluctance to employ is based on nothing more than greed.
Just for a moment, Sean T, assuming it was even possible under current industrial law, a minimum wage of $25k would be electoral poison for any Gov stupid enough to introduce it.
Up-Rooted!
NOW Root rooted!
Sean Tisme@1001
If it can’t sustain you, you shouldn’t expect it to sustain others.
@CTar1/996
Actually I did mean Switzerland.
@Bemused/1000
😛
CTar, they will be running out of countries to do that in, with rising wages in places like China.
Bell tolled!!!!
@Sean/1001
And when it comes to money being “wasted” the idiot business owners always choose keeping the money for themselves, rather than see their business prosper.
Baka.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_country
Sort by Annual(US Dollars)
Australia has the highest minimum wage… in the world.
And people wonder why unemployment is rising and manufacturers are leaving?
Sean’You seem to think people should be paid top dollar from day 1.’
Well what does that say about your business you have been working hard for years and still not getting top dollar.
Let’s face it Sean, the only reason you don’t hire someone is your business is mediocre at best and cannot hire out your techie for a profit.
Your crocodile tears of wanting to get some off the dole queue are disingenuous. If there was money in it you would hire. (Every coalition supporter understands this).
For someone who purportedly runs a seemingly successful IT business, requisite logic seems to be sorely lacking with Sean
Tisme
That is nonsense that unions prefer workers to be on the dole than in fair value work employment.
I think $25k makes you a cheap skate. Your business obviously can’t cut it to pay people a decent salary.
*have to go, knock him out (Tisme) 🙂
GG is obviously going down to see some of his clerical mates.
‘Anyways, off to the evil pub to have a few evil beers and a few evil bets.’
Sean Tisme@1013
The US has the lowest minimum wage in the western world, and people wonder why their economy is stuffed and their unemployment so high.
Sean
Lets look at the wage debate from the other end, when the GFC occurred it was suggested by some European policy makers that bank bonus should be a thing of the past.
The Banks opposed this on the grounds that it would stifle innovation and remove an incentive to work harder.
This same argument rings true for all income levels, a workforce which has an incentive to achieve results will be more productive than a workforce which isn’t.
You dismissed my mentioning of the wealthiest federal seats with a comment about sea side homes which missed the point and overlooked the fact that at least two of the five wealthiest seats don’t have beachfront homes.
But if you visit small business shopping strips in places like Camberwell and Malvern you will see that prices are higher as the small busiess know that the market can sustain higher prices without it effecting the quantity demanded.
If you took those small business to the outer burbs and they tried to charge the same price they would find the quantity demanded would be less and they therefore would not be able to sustain such prices.
25k is not enough to live on in a big city unless you believe in living a very spartan lifestyle.
Sean
Yes Australia does have a higher minimum wage than many others but it is a high cost country, if you cut wages you will be reducing the quantity demanded thus reducing prices which in turn over the long-run will reduce business earnings.
And minimum wage discussions are rather irrelevant, when very few businesses employ anyone on the minimum wage.
I wonder why that might be, in a market economy?
That Sean thinks that 25 K PA is sustainable, clearly shows that he hasn’t put any thought into this.
As I said, logic is tragically missing.
Wouldn’t trust his IT skills given the way he thinks.
Yes the Market Economy.
As productivity and skills increase people expect a return though higher wages and those employers that resist face losing employees to business that are willing to pay more.
Yesiree Bob
I suspect Sean is looking at it solely from a balance sheet without putting much considerations into the other liabilities and even the asset side to ensure it is maximising his opportunities.
Invariably with anything in life, when the growth of something gets so large it is out of touch with reality at some point the bubble must burst.
We are currently in a wage bubble and with increasing unemployment it just proves that it is unsustainable.
It will be interesting to see unemployment numbers 12 months from now.
MB RE#1024
What the Seans of this world fail to recognize is that there is no incentive to work, on the wages he is proposing.
[It will be interesting to see unemployment numbers 12 months from now.]
Especially with Ho-Jo running the economy.
A wage bubble
Without checking i believe wages are growing only slightly ahead of inflation.
That is compared to the real wage explosions of the early 1970s and 1980s.
Sean Tisme@1025
If you can’t sustain yourself on such a pittance, don’t expect others to.
It’s called equity.
mexicanbeemer@1028
Exactly
What, you mean when JOHN HOWARD was treasurer ?
Yes when Howard was Treasurer
Also the big barrier to working, especially to another state, is the cost of renting and buying another house.
Interesting according to the ABS over the past year
Average Operating Profits have risen by 7.1%
Average full-time wages have risen by 5.1%
MB, so profits are out-pacing wages growth ?
In other words, the only reason to oppose a living wage is nothing other than GREED
[Average Operating Profits have risen by 7.1%]
Except in Shorn’s ‘IT Services for Tupperware Suppliers’ business …
Only a certain part of the business community gets hung up on wages as they know the consequences of not paying their staff well although there are some who just don’t care if they suffer high turnover.
[We are currently in a wage bubble and with increasing unemployment it just proves that it is unsustainable.]
It’s usually fun exposing Sean Tisme’s claims about subjects he obviously doesn’t understand to elementary scrutiny, and this occasion is no exception. I Google “wages growth Australia”, and the first things that come up are a headline in The Australian from August reading “wages growth the slowest in 3.5 years”, and a PriceWaterhouseCoopers press release from October headed “Australian standard of living at risk as real wages stagnate”.
New thread.
[934
imacca
I blame the Carbon Tax.]
and I blame daylight saving.
Centre being more right than wrong is a far cry from never been wrong. Mostly right just backs up my contention that predictions are not always correct. So I guess we agree on that then.