Seat of the week: Wide Bay

Warren Truss’s seat of Wide Bay encompasses Noosa, Gympie and Maryborough, and has been in National/Country Party hands for most of an existence that dates back to federation.

Wide Bay has covered a variable area around Maryborough about 300 kilometres north of Brisbane since its creation at federation. Maryborough is currently at the northern end of an electorate that extends south along the coast to Noosa, which was gained at the redistribution before the 2007 election as its southern neighbour Fairfax was drawn southwards by population growth on the Sunshine Coast (which Wide Bay accommodated in its entirety for most of the period prior to 1949). The electorate also extends inland through Gympie to Murgon and Cherbourg.

Now a secure seat for the Liberal National Party, Wide Bay was one of 15 seats across the country won by Labor at the first election in 1901. Its member from then until 1915 was Andrew Fisher, who served three terms as prime minister and won the party’s first parliamentary majority at the election of 1910. Labor was narrowly defeated at a by-election held after Fisher retired due to ill health, and for the next 13 years the seat was held by Edward Corser, first as a Liberal and then in the Nationalist Party that succeeded it in 1917. The seat passed to the Country Party upon Corser’s death in 1928, when his son Bernard Corser was elected as the party’s candidate without opposition.

Teal and red numbers respectively indicate size of two-party majorities for the LNP and Labor. Click for larger image. Map boundaries courtesy of Ben Raue at The Tally Room.

Brendan Hansen’s election in 1961 gave Labor its first win in Wide Bay in nearly half a century, and he retained the seat until defeated amid a statewide swing against the Whitlam government in 1974. The seat has has since had two National/Country Party members, the present incumbent Warren Truss succeeding Clarrie Millar in 1990. The general trend over this time has been for increasing Nationals margins, with Truss retaining the seat by 8.5% amid Labor’s strong statewide result in 2007 and boosting his margin to 15.6% in 2010, before a narrowing to 13.2% at the 2013 election.

Warren Truss emerged through local Nationals ranks as a councillor for the Shire of Kingaroy from 1976 to 1990, before winning the party’s endorsement to succeed Joh Bjelke-Petersen as member for Barambah at the by-election which followed his retirement in 1988. However, Truss suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Trevor Perrett, a candidate of the eccentric Citizens Electoral Council who joined the Nationals a year later. He was amply compensated with endorsement for Wide Bay at the federal election two years later, and was elected without incident despite a 3.9% swing to Labor.

Truss served as a junior shadow minister in the consumer affairs portfolio after November 1994, but was cut from the front bench when the Nationals’ reduced share of seats within the Coalition reduced its share of the spoils of the 1996 election victory. His opportunity came in October the following year when the travel rorts affair garnered three ministerial scalps including Nationals MP John Sharp, resulting in Truss’s return to the consumer affairs portfolio together with customs. After the 1998 election he was reassigned to community services, and he then attained cabinet rank in July 1999 with his promotion to Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister. In July 2005 he secured his party’s deputy leadership and traded his portfolios for transport and regional services, and was again reassigned to trade in September 2006.

Truss was elevated to the leadership of the National Party when Mark Vaile resigned in the wake of the 2007 election defeat, although it has often been noted that his profile is a good deal lower than that of Barnaby Joyce, who moved from a Queensland Senate seat to the New South Wales lower house seat of New England at the 2013 election. As well as being Deputy Prime Minister, Truss has served as Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development since the election of the Abbott government.

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.

1,168 comments on “Seat of the week: Wide Bay”

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  1. BB and kezza – I usually really enjoy both your posts and insights, but what’s going on tonight? (glad I missed it). is this what happens when some hapless lib isn’t here?

    pedant suggests:

    [Especially for kezza and BB

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxVdjw0Gm8I%5D

    I propose

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxmDqnNmkME

    please give it a rest and save the bile for those that deserve it (although BB – I think you crossed several lines tonight but seemed to enjoy the bile directed at you – very Turkey/Crank-like behaviour, so I’m worried for you).

  3. The missing link for the Victorian Liberal Party says “Unfortunately we can’t find the page that you’re looking for. Wrong URL perhaps?”

    Perhaps not.

  4. Bill you brought it up.

    Tonight kezza was referring to sexual abuse by the clergy of the catholic church. This was interpreted as an attack on the church itself. It isn’t. Kezza did not back down from referring to the abuse by the church clergy or recognising it as something that happens and that can be talked about in public in order to combat it.

    She was not banging on about “..poor me how hard is it all. Bad shit happened to me.”

    She was in a conversation about the Catholic Church – specifically the Vatican and the upper echelons of the Vatican hierarchy so naturally the subject of sexual abuse and complicity in that hierarchy came up. Its a natural thing to refer to wrt the leadership of the Vatican since its the most crucial issue Catholics have to deal with.

    This conversation got a little willing but not really nasty, kezza didn’t back down (if this is your def of misandry then harden up you softcock) and then you jumped in with the reference to her past.

    Lets break it down.

    A known survivor of sexual abuse basically advocated for justice for victims of sexual abuse without referring to her own childhood trauma.*

    When challenged on this (it was slagging off – the catholic church as a whole then somehow another commenter) she didn’t back down from recognising this exists and needs to be addressed.

    Then her own childhood abuse was brought up by another poster who hadn’t really commented on the Church to reinforce the idea that she had somehow slagged someone off.

    This poster then went on to explain how she always did this – brought up her own abuse to shut down debate.

    All she’d done was mention other people’s abuse and some elements of the ongoing struggle they have for justice.

    Then another poster brought up her abuse to shut down debate

    This is not on.

    [Jules, don’t know who you are, but your heart seems to be in the right place. Go back the last couple of years and read the literally hundreds of posts written by Kezza about Kezza’s problems, for which she blames the male gender loudly, remorselessly and at large.]

    That may be so but it isn’t what happened tonight.

    Tonight she acknowledged the role of the church hierarchy in the cover up of systematic childhood abuse. Then you brought up her past, said she was bringing up her past. Accused her of hating men despite the fact that the only man she acknowledged hating was Tony Abbott. Not all men. Specifically one and she listed some good reasons (if there are good reasons to hate. Thats an argument for another day.)

    She didn’t bring it up – you did, and to me it seems you did so to silence her (good luck) talking about other cases of childhood sexual abuse and the ongoing need for justice for other people. This is disturbing to me.

    If you didn’t mean to do this you need to carefully examine your actions/comments in future.

    *(If nothing else by simply refusing to be silent about abuse and cover up by the most powerful people in an organisation.)

  6. Can’t help thinking that these Victorian Liberal candidates accidentally falling like green bottles must be feeling a bit miffed, given that they seem to have been accused of nothing more than exercising their God-given right to be bigots, as defended by Australia’s greatest ever lawyer and legal philosopher.

  7. Cog at 942. Yes, Shakespeare was making a fart joke, but his spelling has nothing to do with this. It simply mimics the French pronunciation. Petard was variously spelt in 17th c English as: petarre, petarh,, patar, pittar, pettar, petarra, etc.

  8. [ The problem with scrolling past the increasing level of personal vitriol is that you’re never quite sure who the goodies and baddies are. ]

    Thats easy. 🙂 Just ask Tony!!

  17. I am reading the book, ‘Stalking Julia Gillard”. I can onnly read so much before I have to put it down, it is so enraging, and so sad.

    I was right, Kevin Rudd is a traitor to the ALP and a selfish slimeball. I nearly bought the Kevin-07 T-shirt. If I had one I would burn the damned thing.

  18. [799
    Dee

    Briefly

    In each case they are very clear: their traditional business has almost completely disappeared.

    In any case, there is almost no commercial value in the fins from whale sharks, simply because of their composition.

    Awful to say but happy if true. :)]

    Yes, I agree. So do they, in their own ways. These are merchant families. They adjust all the time to changes in circumstances, and these days, reconciled to reality, they concentrate on other things. One of these traders has re-based his family’s business around demand from hi-volume restaurant and catering outlets in the new casinos and just about given up the traditional fine dining-banqueting market. He is very pragmatic about this, and gives much more attention to the here-and-now than to lamenting the past.

    Tonight I had dinner with a couple who run family businesses founded on dealing in Chinese culinary and medicinal herbs. Their businesses were commenced by political exiles from Indonesia and Viet Nam – ethnic Chinese refugees who built their families’ livelihoods by importing and wholesaling. The new generation have combined both marriage and their families’ businesses, and now find they must adapt once more to changing markets, ever-tougher competition and new regulations introduced by the Government of China.

    Facing changes that are beyond their control, they are willing to try some Australian products. Luckily, I have the chance to introduce some products wrought by some ingenious and dedicated Tasmanian exporters.

    The youngish couple from Hong Kong are just as determined as their grandparents and parents. They bring the same energy, intellect, prudence and diligence with them, and I cannot help admiring them. They will succeed…no question at all.

  19. Someone should ask Joe Hockey if a couple on $300,000 constitutes a high-income household. Most people would think it does.

    Such a couple (assuming roughly equal income, maximum Super contributions and no other deductions) will pay a total of $76,100 in income tax and Super contributions tax this financial year.

    That’s barely a quarter of their income. Not half.

  21. Various memorials of WWI have occurred. With three dead great uncles in Flanders I mourn the dead, but see nothing to commemorate. The poets were right – this was surely one of the most brutal and stupid wars in recent history. Never again should be the lesson.
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-04/commonwealth-marks-world-war-i-centenary-in-glasgow/5647968

    All the more reason why Putin and Netanyahu should both be opposed. They are not strong men. They are short sighted bullies.

  22. [Is this a polling blog… Or days of our lives…]

    Has this country really been taken over by a bunch of crazed loonies who worship Thatcher and Reagan and not-so-secretly crave a theocracy, figure headed by a sociopath, and cheered on by an Octogenarian who was the role model for a Bond Villain?

    You decide..

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-Zgtm-g4Co

  25. Socrates

    Robert Fisk , whose father fought in the Somme, would be in agreement.

    [My father threw away his poppy in disgust

    Why do we pay homage to the dead but ignore the lessons of their war?

    …..For Little Belgium, Little Gaza. For Flanders poppies, Ukrainian sunflowers. It’s not difficult to imagine what “they” would have thought, the men we should – today – respect, love, remember, but finally leave in peace.

    …. .Hence my old Great War soldier Dad used to refer to “Waterloo teeth”. Tears for the departed, but no sentiment for the dead.

    ……..My Dad survived, of course, and grew very old, and did so with a rage that became ever greater as his enemies – like the British empire he fought for – diminished in size. “Damned fools, the lot of them!” ]
    http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/first-world-war-centenary-my-father-threw-away-his-poppy-in-disgust-9645299.html

  28. Murdoch organ The Daily ToiletPaper has worked out why our Commonwealth Games team did so poorly (according to their warped minds).

    The reason? The Labor Party!

    [AUSTRALIAN Olympic and Commonwealth Games athletes missed out on millions of dollars in Labor government funding because the money was tied up in paying for sports administrators.

    The Australian Sports Commission had 780 staff in 2010 who had to be funded before programs for athletes could receive financing.

    Funding was allocated to a dozen grant programs that did not enhance athletic performance. More than $3 million was spent over two years on media grants, which promoted female athletes, but did not assist in enhancing performance.

    The mismanagement by the previous government meant Australian athletes were robbed of the same opportunities their foreign competitors took for granted because funding got lost in layers of bureaucracy.]

  32. Good Morning

    I am hoping that four years of war commiseration really will make people realise the stupidity of going to war.

  33. Labor’s NBN ‘rushed, chaotic’
    ANNABEL HEPWORTH AND MITCHELL BINGEMANN
    A LANDMARK audit has found the policy process for developing Labor’s NBN was “rushed, chaotic and inadequate”.

    No self interest here of course

  35. Socrates

    [Never again should be the lesson.]
    Forgot to comment on that . I was brought up to believe the “Lest We Forget” bit meant that we must remember so that we never let happen again.

  37. Morning all

    [And the headline…

    [@Shaboh1060: It’s Labor’s fault lol. Rupert does it again. LNP is a joke. Always blaming others http://t.co/W8Ps6Pb38s%5D

    As John Oliver posited on his show recently, “is the Commonwealth Games still a thing”

    Does anyone give us a real stuff about these games?!

  38. Liberal candidate quits –

    [… the Liberal candidate for Bendigo West stood down following crude comments on social media.]

    [..Posts on Facebook from Mr Lyons, including him saying Bendigo was “needing an enema” and labelling its Golden Dragon Museum “ching chong gardens”.

    On one post he laughed at African poverty, asking why people lived in mud huts and had to walk “5 miles everyday for water … why not build the f—ing huts closer to the f—ing water”.

    He also posted that a good pick-up line was “Hey, does this rag smell like chloroform to you?”]

    Pity. It sounds like he’d fit right in to the modern Liberal party.

    http://www.bordermail.com.au/story/2464477/libs-second-candidate-quits-in-disgrace/?cs=12

  41. [I am hoping that four years of war commiseration really will make people realise the stupidity of going to war.]

    It never has in the past. Why should it now?

  42. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.

    Fairfax is going to hound Hockey now. And so they should!
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/government-holding-back-on-documents-20140804-3d4k5.html
    Peter Martin continues in this direction.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/joe-hockey-needs-to-put-his-cards-somewhere–the-tables-gone-missing-20140804-3d4k6.html
    Jenna Price on how the mean budget will affect families. And she has a good dig at Mr Grecian 2000.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/governments-mean-policies-will-have-reverse-effect-on-family-stability-20140804-100czt.html
    Jennifer Hewett has this to say in the AFR “The knock-down, drag-out fight over the budget is at that tiresome stage where the same moves are constantly repeated for diminishing impact.”
    Greg Jericho says Twiggy Forrest is wrong to say welfare spending is out of control. As usual Greg loads up with factual data clearly presented.
    http://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2014/aug/04/andrew-forrest-is-wrong-welfare-spending-is-not-out-of-control
    The New Matilda on Brandis’s proposed new anti-terrorism legislation.
    https://newmatilda.com/2014/08/04/predicting-future-crime-land-free-bigot
    The Whitehouse School is back in the spotlight.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/abbott-design-school-back-in-fee-spotlight-20140805-100ftr.html
    Top 10 PR firms say they won’t represent climate change deniers.
    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/04/worlds-top-pr-companies-rule-out-working-with-climate-deniers
    This proposal to “ring fence” our banks is interesting. But Big Banking would fight it.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/australian-banks-should-look-at-ringfencing-says-former-bank-of-england-governor-20140805-100ft3.html
    When enough is enough. What will the charming Mark Regev say about this?
    http://www.smh.com.au/world/israel-strikes-gaza-refugee-camp-minutes-after-start-of-partial-ceasefire-killing-8yearold-girl-20140805-100fjh.html

  43. Section 2 . . .

    Hugh White does not hold out any hope for Arab/Israeli peace.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/gaza-senseless-violence-a-loselose-for-israel-and-hamas-20140804-1003hn.html
    Damning accusations from inside Morrison’s AS detention regime. So disturbing. It’s a very long article that reminds us of what mainstream journalism once was.
    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/05/-sp-australias-detention-regime-sets-out-to-make-asylum-seekers-suffer-says-chief-immigration-psychiatrist
    From Scott Morrison’s maiden speech. Does the word “hypocrite” spring to mind?
    http://www.ellistabletalk.com/2014/08/04/a-word-from-scott-morrison/
    And the Indian High Commission pisses on Morrison from a great height.
    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/04/india-never-agreed-to-accept-return-of-non-citizen-tamil-asylum-seekers
    The ante just went up big time in the Essendon saga.
    http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/dean-robinson-lists-17-subpoenas-in-fight-against-bombers-afl-20140804-100csk.html
    Peter Martin – The carbon tax was a sideshow. The Coalition goes very quiet as gas prices surge.
    http://www.theage.com.au/comment/looming-leap-in-gas-prices-is-no-laughing-matter-20140804-10043f.html
    The disgrace of overseas “wombs for rent”.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/international-surrogacy-is-dangerous-and-unfair-20140804-1004ge.html
    Alan Moir and Joe Hockey’s budget gravitas.

    Great work from David Pope.
    http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/david-pope-20120214-1t3j0.html
    David Rowe sums it all up about Gaza.
    http://www.afr.com/p/national/cartoon_gallery_david_rowe_1g8WHy9urgOIQrWQ0IrkdO

  46. BK

    Re the Essendon saga. Interestingly, Herald Sun Chief footy writer Mark Robinson has been subpoeaned as well.
    He has been part of the James Hird cheersquad from the get go.

  48. Where is Vic team Labor on this issue

    [Victorian households are not well placed to switch off gas. Victoria uses about 75 per cent of
    Australia’s household gas. Our homes have been built that way. I’ve an open mind about whether eastern Australia should reserve some of its gas for domestic use as does Western Australia. But the government doesn’t. It’s closed down the debate and it’s suddenly quiet about energy prices]

    Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/looming-leap-in-gas-prices-is-no-laughing-matter-20140804-10043f.html#ixzz39SmZ2tVw

  49. [ poroti

    Posted Tuesday, August 5, 2014 at 7:48 am | Permalink

    Sounds like we are getting off lightly compared to the UK.

    1914: the Great War has become a nightly pornography of violence:

    Britain’s commemoration of the Great War has lost all sense of proportion. It has become a media theme park, an indigestible cross between Downton Abbey and a horror movie

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/04/1914-first-world-war-pornography-violence-centenary-military-propaganda
    ]

    ——————————————–

    Excellent article poroti ! ….. Like the UK , I see the pollies here are milking it too – and our defence forces are still embroilled in ‘wars’ – with past lessons forgotten …

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