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”

Comments Page 21 of 24
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  1. Where is Vic team Labor on this issue

    Fair question, Victoria. I’d like to see a tad more forthright approach more broadly. Not so much “kick them whilst they are down”, but a few more sound bites pointing out the facts.

  3. nappin

    This is something team Labor could put forward

    [But it isn’t all being sold at at the world price. By law in Western Australia 15 per cent of all the gas produced in that state has to stay in the state. Western Australia’s Liberal Premier Colin Barnett wants the law taken national. “Any other developed country in the world would be ensuring that their relative clean energy is preserved, or some part of it preserved,” he told Radio National.]

    Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/looming-leap-in-gas-prices-is-no-laughing-matter-20140804-10043f.html#ixzz39SoblBua

  4. [No reward required, I already have Abbott as my prime minister. What more do I need?]

    http://www.ibras.dk/montypython/episode20.htm

    [Woman Reginald Maudling.
    Michael Miles Yes, that’s near enough. I’ll give you that. Right, now, Mrs Scum, you have won your prize, do you still want the blow on the head?
    Woman Yes, yes.
    Michael Miles I’ll offer you a poke in the eye.
    Woman No! I want a blow on the head.
    Michael Miles A punch in the throat?
    Woman No.
    Michael Miles All right then, a kick in the kneecap?
    Woman No.
    Michael Miles Mrs Scum, I’m offering you a boot in the teeth and a dagger up the strap?
    Woman Er…
    Voices Blow on the head! Take the blow on the head!]

  5. And from the Land of the Free.

    The weekly upchucks collection.
    http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2014/08/04/your-weekly-upchucks-hypocrisy-shocking-religion-news/
    The Orange Man John Boehner reads the tea leaves and quits.
    http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2014/08/03/speaker-house-boehner-calling-quits/
    Mitch McConnell gets an eight minute smack down by his election opponent.
    http://crooksandliars.com/2014/08/alison-lundergan-grimes-unleashes-epic
    God gave this idiot the drum to fight the US government.
    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/04/1319040/-Deadbeat-rancher-Cliven-Bundy-says-God-told-him-to-fight-a-civil-war-against-federal-government
    Elizabeth Warren with another devastating performance. Don’t mess with this lady!
    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/01/1318427/-Elizabeth-Warren-pins-banker-to-the-wall-on-student-debt-relief
    Arizonan Republican practises shooting with eyes closed!
    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/04/az-gov-candidate-i-practice-shooting-with-my-eyes-closed-in-case-im-attacked-in-the-night/
    Civil rights Nebraska style.
    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/04/nebraska-wont-give-drivers-license-to-same-sex-married-woman-or-even-recognize-her-name/
    Diagnosing Ann Coulter’s mental illness.
    http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017207008
    Bill Maher hammers the US support of Israel through weapons funding.
    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/01/bill-maher-hammers-u-s-funding-for-israels-weapons-we-just-cant-afford-this-sht-anymore/

  6. I’m enjoying the state of war that exists between Hockey and fairfax.

    http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/government-holding-back-on-documents-20140804-3d4k5.html

    how long before we get legislation relaxing media ownership and mandating that those holding more than 15% of shares (as Gina did/does) must be given a seat on the board and say in editorial appointment and direction?

    Has anyobody called Hockey’s bluster about “high income earners paying 50% of their income in tax” yet? The words “He’e either innumerate, ignorant or lying, and is not fit to be treasurer” should pass someone’s lips as a soundbite today.

  7. Has anyobody called Hockey’s bluster about “high income earners paying 50% of their income in tax” yet?
    ===================================================

    Still having first coffee of the day but somewhere in the morning fog I recall reading that someone on $300,000 a year actually pays around $76,000 in taxes

  10. [Still having first coffee of the day but somewhere in the morning fog I recall reading that someone on $300,000 a year actually pays around $76,000 in taxes]

    good – that was my reckoning too – even with GST included, it is less than 30-35% in total. Most on $300K per year can use various legal tax dodges (negative gearing, savings into super, tax write off investments, etc) to pay much less. Hopefully Shorten has the decency not to use these and can state his tax bill and ask abbott and hockey to do the same. I bet Joe’s accountant in the butt of many colleagues’ jokes today – as in ‘if he pays 50% tax he needs a new accountant’. He needs to hammered on this – he keeps repeating the statement/lie.

  13. Someone with a net taxable income of $300,000 p.a. would pay income tax of about $117,000 p.a, including the Medicare levy. Their marginal rate is 47% and they pay about 39% of their overall income in tax.

    https://www.moneysmart.gov.au/tools-and-resources/calculators-and-tools/income-tax-calculator

    No one in Australia pays 50% of their income in tax. I suspect that someone with, for example, Gina’s income, would be paying a lot less than 39%, legally of course, with the help of trust and corporate structures.

  14. The SMH today has a story on the Moree shooting:

    [‘Ambushed’ on public road

    RACHEL OLDING Police throw into disarray claims that the man who shot dead environmental officer Glen Turner was pushed to the edge by harassment.]

    I cannot provide the link.

  16. SSF –

    [ Has anybody called Hockey’s bluster about “high income earners paying 50% of their income in tax” yet? The words “He’e either innumerate, ignorant or lying, and is not fit to be treasurer” should pass someone’s lips as a soundbite today. ]

    Hockey’s developing into a gift that keeps on giving.

    Budget in strife big time, hockey ticking off the usual check list of excuses and blaming others, opponents calling bluff on his various threats – so what does he do – he defends the rich and attacks the poor and middle class yet again.

    He is narrowing his options to do something very silly like going down the legislation by regulation route or adding stuff to supply bills which will make matters worse.

    Or he could try more cuts – that it didn’t work last time probably won’t stop him.

    Always was a buffoon was Joe and thats not changed.

    The tories woes are as if this was a third term government.

  17. James Carleton on ABC RN interviewed ex-marine commander Dean West, who has written 10 books on military strategy.

    West fought in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan and has expertise in matters artillery.

    For a conservo yank he surprisingly said he just can’t fathom what Israel is doing in Gaza from a humanitarian view and from a military view.

    He likened Gaza to Falluja, where he fought. The only strategy that will work in dense populations is door to door, house to house clearouts, says he. That guarantees far less civilian casualties (whites of eyes shooting etc) but also guarantees substantial losses of own soldiers.

    So that’s a choice Israel makes ….. better to loose 1400 civilians and only 50 IDFs than the reverse, says he.

    As to artillery, mortars and tanks, he says their accuracy is at very best a 50 metre radius from the target ie a 100 metre wide circular slab of possible destruction. Tanks, he says, are downright inaccurate in “angle barrelled shooting”. Only with barrels horizontal ie rolling up to the target and firing from 100 metres or less are they accurate.

    The Israelis have so far fired 35,000 shells at Gaza and this has a 100% probability of killing many civilians in the 100 metre wide minimum target + error area.

    So there we have it.

    Israel is choosing not to use weapons of high-tech pinpoint accuracy, or infantry strategies which are the best to protect civilians in densely populated theatres of war.

    That sounds to me very much like a war crime.

    Almost as an aside Dean West said that using this strategy, the war will never end. Hamas operatives will survive and new tunnels are easily dug.

    In this matter ie wars that can’t be won, we would certainly have to bow to the expertise of a Yank …. unwinnable wars are obviously their forte.

  18. Is this an audit or another ‘review’ organised by the Abbott government where the findings are determined in advance?

    [THE rollout of Labor’s National Broadband Network was rushed, chaotic and inadequate, and done without an adequate business case or cost-benefit analysis, a government commissioned audit says.

    THE review by former head of the Productivity Commission Bill Scales is highly critical of the NBN project, saying the Rudd cabinet only gave “perfunctory” consideration to the $43 billion second stage of its development…

    Labor dismissed the Scales audit as a political attack on the NBN.

    “Malcolm Turnbull has now spent more than $10 million on reviews that tell him nothing more than what he wants to hear,” opposition communications spokesman Jason Clare said.]

    http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/audit-criticises-chaotic-nbn-rollout/story-e6frfku9-1227013581530

  19. Re recent Victorian resignations of Liberal candidates. There seems to be a pattern here in these and other incidents. Basically, if someone is not white, Anglo and heterosexual, there’s a good chance that their Liberal MP or candidate regards them as something less than a full member of society, someone to be put down or derided.

  20. psyclaw

    [Almost as an aside Dean West said that using this strategy, the war will never end. Hamas operatives will survive and new tunnels are easily dug]
    Not to mention the tens of thousands who, having their homes destroyed or family members killed, will burn with a desire to take up arms against those who did it to them.

  21. Poroti #1015

    Thanks for the Croppa Creek link.

    That it apparently didn’t happen at all as the media have told us, vis a vis such basic details as to where it actually happened (not even at Turnbull’s farm) , and that Turner was serving a notice on Turnbull (he was doing unrelated duties at another place), indicates that premature speculations are really hype.

  22. [1010
    Sir sustainable future

    Still having first coffee of the day but somewhere in the morning fog I recall reading that someone on $300,000 a year actually pays around $76,000 in taxes]

    Good luck with that. The ATO tax calculator works it out as follows:

    If you are an individual who is married but whose spouse has no income, you have no dependent children, and your taxable income is $300,000, the Income Tax payable in 2014 will be $108,547 and the Medicare Levy will be $4,500, for a total of $113,047.00 (not including the private health insurance rebate).

    If you and your partner each earn $150,000 and have no dependent children, and not including the private health insurance rebate, Income Tax will be $43,447 and the Medicare Levy will be $2,250, for a total of $45,697 for each person, or $91,394.00.

    You can work it out using the ATO calculator, here:

    https://www.ato.gov.au/Calculators-and-tools/Comprehensive-tax-calculator/

  23. Well on this I am on the side of the IPA. Strange bedfellows and all that.

    “@latikambourke: And @TheIPA is quick off of the blocks: “MANDATORY INTERNET DATA RETENTION TREATS ALL AUSTRALIANS LIKE CRIMINALS: IPA”.”

  24. Steve777 @ 1019: One increasingly gets the sense that this government’s vision for Australia is based on a Christian Brothers institution circa 1960, where being weak makes you an object for contempt, and where the powerful give vent to their sadistic impulses under the guise of “tough love”.

  25. Poroti #1020

    Yes, only last night OH and I were commenting on the physical damage.

    It must have been in response to a TV clipping we had not previously seen ….. fairly prolonged views of the incredibly trashed buildings and infrastructure.

    This is another rarely commented on aspect of it all. The Israelis are ensuring that those civilians still left alive on Gaza will now have to endure the pain of trashed homes and buildings and infrastructure for years and years.

    One wonders if this is not an integral part of the strategy….. turn the whole Gaza Strip into a refugee camp, and we all know how many years / decades they go on for.

  26. [1010
    Sir sustainable future

    Hopefully Shorten ….can state his tax bill and ask abbott and hockey to do the same.]

    This is a terrible idea. People’s tax bills are matters between them and the ATO. As long as they comply with the law and pay what is due, no-one else has any right to know about these things, even if they are politicians.

    I think matters of tax policy are completely different and of course should be openly canvassed, but personal financial and taxation matters – as well as lots of other personal information – should not be made matters of public contention. Everyone is entitled to some privacy.

  27. Great story on front of AFR in which Craig Laundy says “I am pro-palestinian”(cos 18% of my electorate are Muslim and I want to get re-elected. Seems Craig isn’t very happy with the Govt’s pro-Israel stance. But doesn’t Craig realise that Tone doesn’t give a stuff about anyone, including his back-benchers.

  28. Briefly #1022

    So in your second scenario the couple pay less than 30% tax.

    And if they had a couple of dependant kids it’d be less?

    Not to mention other wealth maximisation strategies that might be available. I know the principal of a large accounting firm ….. he and Mrs Principal go on 2 OS trips each year to “international accounting conventions” and have done so for years.

    And his firm purchases a real lot of wine (he is a serious afficionado) with which to entertain and gift clients (and friends).

  29. Dave #1016

    “Hockey’s developing into a gift that keeps on giving.”

    Yes, Sloppy and Abbot have become essential assets to Labor’s next campaign.

    Saw him saying last night “Jacqui Lambie is a wonderful person” …. what a great negotiation line. I’m sure she’s 100% onside now!!!!

    Waiting for that accolade to come back and haunt him.

  32. [Someone with a net taxable income of $300,000 p.a. would pay income tax of about $117,000 p.a, including the Medicare levy. Their marginal rate is 47% and they pay about 39% of their overall income in tax.]

    this calculator doesn’t seem to match my tax bill (I earn less than half to $300,000 even in a good year, but even when I put my figures in they don’t seem to match my bill). Must be for someone with no work expenses claims, no donations and no dependent kids. With GST on spending, I’d still be under 35%.

    Hockey must be using the marginal rate rather than % of income – it’d still be interesting to get Hockey to declare how much income tax he pays as a percentage of earnings (never mind the expense account and generous super/pension package he’s on).

    labor and the greens need to get onto the ‘defensive expenditure’ issue – if those paying higher tax don’t pay it, then they/we’ll all need to pay more for insurance (higher crime), security systems, private education, private health, transport (less safe to use public transport) etc.etc. A good age of entitlement argument to get this point through would be to say – we can cut taxes if we also cut funding to and collect taxes from elite private school businesses.

    labor and the greens should also talk about the fairest way of giving tax relief is to lift the tax free threshold and trumpet the fact they did so. they should also talk about capacity to pay and the comparative impost of different income groups once the temporary ‘deficit levy’ is removed (obviously this was tacked on at the end of budget planning to try to pretend the wealthy were doing some ‘heavy lifting’). discussions re: % of disposable income taken by the budget need to be discussed/ highlighted. the impact of such a budget on people’s feeling of security and consumer confidence would not go astray. Labor needs to highlight that the (il)Liberal/LNP vision for a US-style impoverished underclass, growing class of working poor, and mega wealthy elite 1-5% is not a desirable objective.

    part of me wishes the cross benches would pass the budget – at present the government is on a win-win – with more revenue and less political pain leading up to 2016.

    I note that hockey and abbott are claiming they have not broken any promises because they said that there would be no changes/cuts/etc in the first term of government and until they’d gone to the 2016 election (making it sound as though they’d not legislate until they’d put options to the electorate) – nobody asked whether they’d in 2014 introduce the changes and cuts to come into effect after the next election, so therefore they didn’t lie/deceive.

  34. [1028
    psyclaw

    So in your second scenario the couple pay less than 30% tax.]

    In 2014, if your taxable income is $55,000 per year, Income Tax and the Medicare Levy will be $10,072 or 18.4% of income. If your taxable income is $25,000, Income Tax and the Medicare Levy will be $1,222 or 4.9% of taxable income.

    There is an upward slope in the tax tables.

    Rather than making income tax rates higher, in my opinion it would be better to close the loopholes and exemptions. This would be less distorting to the economy and mean individuals in similar circumstances would be taxed in similar ways. It would also mean revenue would increase.

  36. [You could try using the calculator with your own details.]

    I did, and it came our where it should thanks.

    I still want hockey to produce one tax payer who pays half their income in tax and to declare the % he pays of his.

    re:tax details being private – in the US it is increasingly common for elected officials to declare this (admitted, usually when they are trying to embarrass a mega wealthy opponent). I think if you start repeatedly and dishonestly claiming people earning as much as you do pay half their income in tax, then it’s a fair question to ask of Hockey. I look forward to a journo or a labor/ greens member doing just that.

  37. Sir Sustainable Future – I made no attempt to take account of any deductions or concessions that might be available to someone on that sort of income, including any accounting tricks. A real corporate executive on a salary of $300,000 per annum would be paying a lot less than 39% of their income in tax. If they are outside the PAYG system probably a lot less.

    No one pays a 50% marginal rate. The top marginal rate (including Medicare Levy) is 48.5%.

    I don’t want to see any of the budget measures passed. Some will be very hard or impossible to reverse. If the Medicare Co-payment gets through that’s the end of bulk billing. If tertiary education is deregulated the horses will have well and truly bolted and will be near impossible to round up again. And it will create another bunch of rent seekers on the public teat – private colleges – that will be impossible to dislodge. Try taking public funding from ‘free’ enterprise.

  38. Briefly, I think SSF was referring to my post from late last night. I was talking about a couple with a combined income of $300,000, making maximum Super contributions ($35,000 for over-50’s).

    Such a couple would pay just over a quarter of their income in tax.

  39. Hey Vic,
    I think Barnett is on a winner there, re a guaranteed domestic gas supply. Any gas price spike would be disastrous for manufacturing and peak electricity prices.

    Steve777:
    [No one in Australia pays 50% of their income in tax. I suspect that someone with, for example, Gina’s income, would be paying a lot less than 39%, legally of course, with the help of trust and corporate structures.]

    I have a mate who’s recently been assessing the tax-minimising structures used by one of Australia’s 10 wealthiest people (he wouldn’t say who). He says the bloke earned $46,000 last year and claimed FTB.

    And doesn’t Hockey have a glass jaw! I hope Bowen just keeps pestering him.

  44. Alan Turing strikes again.

    [Mystery of how we got our fingers and toes solved: 60-year-old theory of how limbs and digits form in the womb finally proven

    British mathematician Alan Turing is famed for designing the machines that cracked German military codes in the Second World War and for pioneering artificial intelligence.

    But one of his lesser known theories saw him turn his hand to mathematical biology – and the conclusion he came to has just been proven.

    In 1952 he published a paper that offered a theory on the mathematics of patterns including zebra stripes and ridges on sand dunes – and his theory even explained how human fingers formed.]

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2715334/Mystery-got-fingers-toes-solved-Turings-60-year-old-theory-limbs-digits-form-womb-finally-proven.html

  45. LU – So we’re going to end up paying international prices for gas, which means that, basically, once the investment phase is over, the gas will be shipped offshore and the profits will be shipped offshore, and we’ll get very little benefit (except a high exchange rate).

    Maybe Bill should emulate Barnett at the next election.

  46. Also up at ICAC this week is the Cornwells of Newcastle, the son is a Liberal member of. Nsw parliament. This from his first speech mentions his father, who is in the dock tomorrow

    [My family all took ownership of their various roles. My parents, Brien and Alida, worked tirelessly for many months and went beyond the call of duty. Thank you to my mother-in-law, Wendy, for moving in with us to help with our family during the campaign, and to my father-in-law, Beau, thank you for lending her to us. My sisters and their partners all provided invaluable expertise and manpower. My magnificent team of volunteers are far too numerous to mention individually; however to every one of you, I cannot thank you enough. You all believed in change, and both collectively and individually you delivered change. It was also an enormous help to have been surrounded by five fantastic Liberal candidates running strong campaigns. We worked as a team then, and we will continue to work as a team to deliver the best outcomes for our region, so to Robyn Parker, Tim Owen, Craig Baumann, and Garry Edwards, thank you and congratulations.
    ]

  47. [I have a mate who’s recently been assessing the tax-minimising structures used by one of Australia’s 10 wealthiest people (he wouldn’t say who). He says the bloke earned $46,000 last year and claimed FTB.]

    hopefully this sort of stuff stuff (as well as the tax exemptions they claim for their donations to the LNP) will get some play with Hockey’s innumerate bellowing. Joe will then bellow about class envy/war as though that kills to concern most people have about this sort of trickery. The libs specialise in creating tax loopholes and discounts for the better off, so it farcical to talk about ‘ending the age of entitlement’ by hitting the least well off the hardest and claiming that’s fair. The neo-con/far right agenda is to have a fearful and uneducated population – they can be convinced to vote against their own self interest and see progressives as ‘bleeding heart’/’politically correct’ elites to be despised – and also buy the election year bribes and advertising campaigns (and murdoch media reporting). At the end of the day the agenda is to have a disenfranchised and disengaged public who hate their politicians and don’t see government as a way to better their lot through fairer distribution of wealth and opportunity creation. Abbott and co are a ‘success’ in that people despise them.

  50. According to the ABC, the document prepared by Scales for Turnbull was an “independent audit”:

    [An independent audit of Labor’s National Broadband Network has found the policy’s formation was rushed, chaotic and inadequate.

    The Abbott Government appointed former Telstra director Bill Scales to investigate the advice and processes that led to Labor’s NBN policy between 2008 and 2010.]

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-05/development-of-nbn-policy-rushed-and-chaotic-review-finds/5648122

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