Seat of the week: Groom

Located in the Darling Downs and dominated by Toowoomba, the seat of Groom has provided a secure electoral base for Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane through a parliamentary career going back to 1998.

Located in the Darling Downs region of Queensland, Groom is dominated by the city of Toowoomba about 100 kilometres west of Brisbane, which accounts for slightly less than 80% of its population. Toowoomba is near the electorate’s eastern boundary, from which it extends westwards to Jondaryan and Pittsworth and northwards to Goombungee, along with sparsely populared rural areas further afield. The electorate was created with the expansion of parliament in 1984 as the successor to Darling Downs, which had existed since federation. Neither Darling Downs nor Groom has ever been held by Labor.

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.

Darling Downs was held by the major conservative movement of the time from 1901 until 1936, when Arthur Fadden gained it for the Country Party at a by-election held after the death of United Australia Party member Sir Littleton Groom, who gives the modern electorate its name. When parliament expanded in 1949, Fadden moved to the new seat of McPherson, and an agreement between the coalition parties reserved Darling Downs for the Liberals. It was accordingly won with little difficulty by Liberal candidate Reginald Swartz, who retained it until his retirement in 1972. A three-cornered contest ensued at the 1972 election, in which Country Party candidate Tom McVeigh secured a comfortable victory after outpolling the Liberal candidate by 32.3% to 22.5%. McVeigh carried on as member for Groom after 1984 and retired in February 1988, leading to another three-cornered contest at the ensuing by-election. This time the seat fell to the Liberals, whose candidate Bill Taylor outpolled the Nationals candidate by 33.3% to 28.8%. With Taylor’s retirement in 1998 the seat was bequeathed to its current member, Ian Macfarlane, who polled 33.1% on debut against 18.0% for One Nation and 15.2% for the Nationals. The Nationals again fielded a candidate against Macfarlane in 2001, but gave him little trouble.

Recognisable for a distinctive voice resulting from damage sustained to his larynx following a cancer operation in 2004, Macfarlane served as a minister in the Howard government from January 2001, first in the junior portfolio of small business, then attaining cabinet rank as Industry, Tourism and Resources Minister after the October 2001 election. He attained further seniority in opposition, holding the trade portfolio under Brendan Nelson and energy and resources under Malcolm Turnbull. When Tony Abbott became leader in December 2009 he was moved to infrastructure to make way for Nick Minchin, but he recovered energy and resources when Minchin retired from the front-bench the following March. With the election of the Abbott government he was allocated to an expanded industry portfolio that incorporated responsibility for mining and science, the lack of a dedicated portfolio for the latter inspiring some controversy.

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.

1,381 comments on “Seat of the week: Groom”

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  2. This was on the ABC774 conversation hour other day. Worthwhile listening

    [Jon Faine’s co-host is director, producer, screenwriter, actor and comedian, Rob Sitch.
    His latest ABC TV series Utopia, premieres tonight at 8:30pm.
    Their first guest is creative director, author and political commentator, Dee Madigan.
    Her book is called The Hard Sell: The tricks of political advertising.
    “Negative ads work and the reason they work is because they hone in on the people who are disengaged,” she says.
    “Disengaged voters are far more likely to vote against a party than for them.”]

    http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2014/08/13/4066452.htm?&section=latest&date=(none)

  3. *sigh*

    The time for Bongiorno and Grattan to out Abbott as a dangerous warmonger was before the election.

    But the MSM rope-a-dopes were asleep at the wheels of their particular cars. FAIL. FAIL.

    Better late than never, but is it too late?

    Meanwhile ‘must’ is gaining some currency in the public debatE concerning ISIS.

    Abbott, of course, has said that we ‘must’ stop ISIS. People like Sheridan are also into ‘must’.

    These were the same lunatics who gave us ‘must’ destroy Iraq’s WMD and we ‘must’ defeat the Taliban.

    BTW, just in case anyone has forgotten, Abbott was a senior cabinet minister of the government that decided that Australia would invade Iraq.

    Abbott has forgotten everything and learned nothing.

  6. Yes, the rotten apple was doing a bit of narcissism.

    He has, he intoned self-deprecatingly, ‘…swapped his Royal Airforce Jet for a bicycle’.

    I still say that if Abbott gets us into a war he should be strapped to the bonnet of the first Hummer into battle.

  9. Courtesy of Leroy Lynch

    http://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/the-icac-trap-how-one-judge-changed-politics/story-fnii5s3x-1227025943181
    The ICAC trap: How one judge changed politics
    August 15, 2014 10:00PM
    Andrew Clennell State Political Editor The Daily Telegraph

    They call it “mining the villages”. When politicians are about to lose government, they work to make sure the other team have as tough a time as possible when they win office.

    When you look at the astonishing mess that the Coalition government has found itself in this year at ICAC you can put it down to two decisions by the former Labor Premier Nathan Rees in 2009.

    One was to legislate to ban political donations from developers.

    The other was to appoint David Ipp as the ICAC Commissioner.

  10. [ Boerwar

    Posted Saturday, August 16, 2014 at 1:10 pm | Permalink

    Yes, the rotten apple was doing a bit of narcissism.

    He has, he intoned self-deprecatingly, ‘…swapped his Royal Airforce Jet for a bicycle’.

    I still say that if Abbott gets us into a war he should be strapped to the bonnet of the first Hummer into battle.
    ]

    ——————————————-

    Boerwar – thats no way to treat Field Marshall Abbbott – Leader Of Team Australia ….

    You are either with US … or you are with the terrorists

    TEAM AUSTRALIA RAH RAH RAH …..

  12. I thought I heard someone summon me, but that’s just me.

    About zoomster and “green bashing”. I don’t think participate in that as much as some of the other posters here but I am in dispute over her views of voting trends.

    I am more concerned with the disrespecting tones some others use in terms like “greentards” and “greenturds”. I don’t think it’s a respectful way to discuss policies.

    I have plenty of times express my dislike of the Libs and their policies but I will stop short of saying “libtard” or “laborturd” if it comes to that.

    Attack the policies, and not use name-calling.

  14. Raaraa

    I think your contention was that there had been a long term growth in the votes of minor parties.

    I wouldn’t dispute that.

    The issue yesterday was slightly different – whether or not the Greens could achieve 11% at the next election.

    That has nothing to do with long term trends. It does have something to do with short term trends, but (as I argued) these can also be misleading.

    That the Greens come out before almost every election (and particularly by elections) with a prediction based on polling which doesn’t eventuate on election day is a matter of record.

  17. Is there any significant extent to which individual Australian responses to Cormann (and his obviously non-anglo accent) reflect deep-seated feelings and national stereotypes related to (a) WW2, (b) the Holocaust, and (c) decades of anti-german feeling propagated by popular television shows such as Hogan’s Heroes?

    I note the frequent use of ‘boxhead’, for example, to describe Cormann. He is the only member of parliament to be denigrated in this germanophobic way.

    A similar question might be asked in relation to Abetz. Criticism of his behaviour, preferred policies and programs seems to be seamlessly related to derogatory commentary about his relations and to his national antecedants.

  19. Praise be to the JR.

    She left a bit of flesh on the bone and then left the bone in plain site on the back lawn.

    A passing Grey Butcherbird, noting the free feed, spent some time ripping at the flesh with its hooked beak and, co-incidentally, posing for the best Grey Butcherbird images I have ever managed to capture.

  20. Going through some older stuff and found this;

    • No surprises
    No excuses
    No lies
    Higher standards in government
    You can trust me
    Surprise No 1 Turn back the boats has been ditched by Abbott.
    Surprise No 2 Buy back the boats has been ditched by Abbott.
    Surprise No 3 Joyce publicly supports Indonesian purchase of Australian farmland after having ranted and raved for six years about the perils of foreign purchases of Australian farmland.
    Surprise No 4 MacFarlane thinks about providing financial support to the Holden factory.
    Surprise No 5 Hockey seeks to reduce debt by seeking to avoid counting infrastructure debt as ‘debt’ in the national accounts because it is ‘good’ debt.
    Surprise No 6 When all those Coalition figures said, ‘Tow back the boats’ they were lying
    Surprise No 7 When Abbott implied that he would spend the first week of his prime ministership in an Indigenous community and allowed Indigenous people to cheer him for implying this, but did not actually end up doing so.
    Surprise No 8 Successful applicants for RDA funding have to re-apply for their grants.
    Surprise No 9 Hockey wants to lift Australia’s debt ceiling.
    Surprise No 10 Abbott promised higher standards but has delivered low, rorting standards.
    Surprise No 11 Before the election Abbott pretends to be very supportive of Indigenous people. At the 11th hour before the election he announced swinging cuts to Indigenous organisations including Aboriginal Legal Aid. After the election he axes $600,000 from the National Aboriginal Sporting Chance Academy. He also insists that the principle of his accepting the many thousands of dollars of travel allowance he accumulated doing ‘voluntary’ work at impoverished Cape York Indigenous communities are within the guidelines.
    Surprise No 12 After promising not to negotiate with the Greens, the Liberals have indicated that they are prepared to negotiate with the Greens over the PPL.
    Surprise No 13 After promising greater scrutiny of overseas investments the Liberals have indicated that they are prepared to accept the same scrutiny in order to achieve a FTA with the Chinese.
    Surprise No 14 Abbott promised 2 million new jobs. Where are they?
    Surprise No 15 After criticising Labor for hitting the ground reviewing, the Liberals are hitting the ground reviewing.
    Surprise No 16 After promising to keep the Speaker out of Party room meetings, the Manager for Government business, Pyne, will allow Bronwyn Bishop to attend Party room meetings.
    Surprise No 17 The future of DisabilityCare Australia for thousands of people has been thrown into doubt with the Abbott Government walking away from Federal Labor’s plans for the full roll out of the scheme.
    Surprise No 18 Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has pulled back from the Coalition’s previous firm commitment to sending a patrol ship south to monitor the whaling conflict this summer.
    Surprise No 19 After rabbiting on about debt for four years, Abbott and Hockey have already borrowed $13.9 billion.
    Surprise No 20 Abbott and Brandis are referred to the AFP within a month of taking office. Not a surprise is that what goes round, comes round. So much for Abbott’s promised higher standards.
    Surprise No 21 Abbott proposes an Australian Arlington in Canberra without mentioning it with anyone and without consulting anyone.
    Surprise No 22 After commending the release of the Red and Blue Books while in Opposition, the Abbott Government refuses to publish the Red and the Blue Books.
    Surprise No 23 After having fed the chooks on a daily basis with Putinesque stunts for four years, Abbott is nowhere to be seen.
    Surprise No 24 The Abbott Government secretly reduced the disaster relief aid provided to bushfire victims – just in time to screw a whole lot of bushfire victims. Those bushfire victims who paid tax to enable Abbott to sit on his arse as a ‘volunteer’ in a fire truck will no doubt be doubly impressed.
    Surprise No 25. Morrison thinks that Australian taxpayers should ask the PNG Government about what happened to Australian citizens, Australian tax dollars and an Australian warship on Manus Island this week.
    Surprise No 26. Abbott promised more transparency and accountability but the Government has changed Standing Orders to restrict transparency and accountability.
    Surprise No 27 Despite Pyne’s written commitment for opposition to get the Deputy Speaker position, the Coalition has used its numbers for the Nationalss to get the position.
    Surprise No 28. Despite stating that no public servants would be sacked, they are being sacked.
    Surprise No 29. Abbott calls torture, rape and murder by the Sri Lankan Government ‘difficulties’.
    Surprise No 30. It only took the Abbott Government two months to wreck our relationship with Indonesia.
    Surprise No 31. Pyne backtracks on Gonski funding commitments.
    Surprise No 32. Abbott announces that all children should attend Bible classes. He did not the sacred texts of other religions.
    Surprise No 33 Alcohol and Other Drugs Council of Australia (ADCA) (Administrator Appointed) – Defunded
    Minister Fiona Nash, the Commonwealth Government’s Assistant Minister for Health has decided not to continue ADCA’s funding. This includes core funding, along with all project funding, effective immediately.
    Minister Nash’s decision ignores previous undertakings and commitment provided to ADCA in April 2013 about ongoing funding for ADCA to 2015.
    Surprise No 34 Despite blocking the publication of all other ‘blue’ books, the Government releases part of just one ‘blue’ book – from Defence. Various bits are redacted. The elements criticising the previous Government are published.
    Posted Friday, November 29, 2013 at 8:22 am | Permalink
    Surprise No 35 Despite Abbott emphasizing repeatedly that Australia is open for business, and despite Hockey announcing publicly that he would not be ‘bullied’ in relation to the decision, Hockey rejects the Archer Daniels Midland bid.
    Surprise No 36 Scullion is doing a review to look at the merging of the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC)and Indigenous Business Australia (IBA). This was not promised before the election. If this is a first step to merging the two there is, as ever with the Abbott Government’s ‘commitment’ to Indigenous Australia, a couple of stings in the tail. The first is that the ILC is focused primarily on land-based activities, including the purchase and transfer of land to traditional owners. The second is that the IBA is focused on business development but is non-tenure-based. The second sting in the tail? Given, the badly-skewed membership of Abbott’s National Indigenous Advisory Council, the membership of the directors of the merged body would probably be similarly skewed. For example, none of the National Indigenous Advisory Council members come from: the inland, the pastoral belt, South Australia, Victoria, the ACT or Tasmania. The third sting in the tail? The ILC has strong statutory protection for its funds, which are substantial and which are controlled by Indigenous people. Any newly merged body would, no doubt, have ministerial approval of funding tucked into the package. The ‘review’, therefore, presages what has been a consistent theme of the Abbott Government (as with the Howard governments) – the transfer of funding and funding control from Indigenous people to non-Indigenous people (as with funding cuts to Indigenous legal aid organisations and transfer of funds to non-Indigenous people litigating against land rights cases in the courts). Oh, and one other thing – lots of Indigenous public servants are losing their jobs in states such as Queensland and will be losing their jobs as the Abbott Government implements what it was going to implement all along: draconian funding cuts to federal departments of education, health and environment.
    Surprise No 37. Having sworn black and blue that they would never, ever do a deal with the Greens, the Abbott Government does a deal with the Greens.
    Surprise No 38. The Abbott Opposition did not promise to cut tens of millions from aid directed at stopping the global scourge of malaria. And now it has cut tens of millions in aid from aid directed at stopping the global scourge of malaria.
    Surprise No 39. The Coalition cuts $342 million’s worth of regional projects.
    Surprise No 40. The Coalition re-instates $342 million’s worth of regional projects, leaving Truss with only one real difficulty: how to lie about the combination of Surprises No 39 and No 40.
    Surprise No 41. The Coalition is not even going to bother to try to meet is pre-election commitment to meeting its NBN promises.
    Surprise No 42. Despite professing support for Australian car manufacturing before the election, Abbott destroys Holden after the election.
    Surprise No 43. Despite not mentioning it before the election, the Abbott Government takes $1.2 billion for aged care after the election.
    Surprise No 44. Despite not mentioning it before the election, the Abbott has stopped funding for the Indigenous Education Advisory Group.
    Surprise No 45. Despite having the latest science on the presence of species endangered with extinction, the Napthine Government ignores it. The test now is whether Hunt will ignore it.
    Surprise No 46. Despite billing itself as an Infrastructure Government and despite criticising the former Labor Government for its performance in duplicating the Pacific Highway, the Abbott Government is cutting funding to the Pacific Highway by $70 million.

  21. [AussieAchmed
    Posted Saturday, August 16, 2014 at 1:44 pm | Permalink

    Corruption investigation smashing NSW Liberals now only a few steps from PM Abbott
    #auspo]

    There is just one short direct step from Loughnane to Abbott.

  22. [That the Greens come out before almost every election (and particularly by elections) with a prediction based on polling which doesn’t eventuate on election day is a matter of record.]

    I think the purpose of this is to give wavering voters ‘permission’ to vote green by suggesting this tidal wave of new green support. Seems fair enough hyperbowling to me.

  24. The Greens are the same as PUP, only different.

    Neither has much more power than to delay things or to stop things from happening altogether. Both distort oucomes. Neither generates forward movement. Neither is capable of running an economy, a society or an environment.

    They excel at self-righteousness. They excel at populism. They excel at squinting at the Parts while ignoring the Whole.

    In the short term, both make a huge and disproportionate amount of noise. In the long term, both get thoroughly squashed by the elephant of the day.

  27. [Re BW @117: it might have something to do with the way Matthias Cormann’s accent makes him sound a bit like the Terminator.]

    Yeah but less intelligent.

  30. Boerwar

    Posted Saturday, August 16, 2014 at 1:59 pm | Permalink

    AA
    I think I have seen that before.

    have you updated it, or was it too much of a challenge and time consuming? I mean every day adding to it would get monotonous

  32. Boerwar

    Posted Saturday, August 16, 2014 at 2:52 pm | Permalink

    AA
    Their Mass Fraud was so Wall to Wall that keeping up with it exhausted me.

    I saved that version on 15 December 2013…..

  35. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-15/salvation-army-dismisses-whistleblower-who-raised-concerns/5672312?section=qld

    [In April, the commision was told the Salvation Army had kept the confessed child sex abuser, Colin Haggar, in its ranks, and promoted him to assistant director of a women’s and children’s shelter.]

    The Salvation Army is one of the few organisations who recently successfully tendered to run women’s refuges in NSW.

    Boggles the mind repeatedly.

  36. This was in the Border Mail

    [HOW do you stop a potential rival leader in politics?

    You make him treasurer, give him the job of creating a cruel and nasty budget based on pure lies trumpeted up through a contrived national audit.

    Wealthy cigar-smoking Joe Hockey is now the most hated politician in Australia; bye, bye Joe!

    Tony Abbott set him up and ran away to hide out overseas masquerading as a world statesman.

    Even Peter Costello and John Hewson have come out undermining Joe Hockey’s crooked budget while Tony Abbott is distancing himself from the budget’s hard line.

    Mr Abbott has used the same tactics with section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, making himself out to be a hero of its turnabout, when in fact he initially orchestrated to have it removed.

    Unemployed youth are to live without money for six months as youth unemployment grows to exceed 20 per cent.

    At the same time they must apply for 40 invisible jobs without a single dollar to help make the applications.

    Australia is becoming a nasty place to live for many.

    See your ad here
    — ALAN J. LAPPIN,

    Boorhaman North]

    http://www.bordermail.com.au/story/2491868/joe-will-never-be-our-pm/?cs=14

  38. victoria

    Getting rid of Malcolm was also easy. Put him in charge of destroying what Malcolm would know is the way to go. Talcum had to suck it all up with a smile to show what a faithful party peasant he is. Public see Talcum being an NBN destroying luddite and opinion will get worse as it becomes apparent what a dog of a broadband set up he oversaw .

  41. z

    [That the Greens come out before almost every election (and particularly by elections) with a prediction based on polling which doesn’t eventuate on election day is a matter of record.]

    I don’t know about the Greens specifically but Nate Silver says that in the US, minor parties generally fare worse in the election than their polling suggests.

  42. Dee

    so nothing about stopping them from going overseas to start with, I note…

    Seriously, why isn’t there being more made of this? A man uses his brother’s passport to leave the country so he can join a terrorist organisation, and the concern is that he’s receiving welfare payments, not that Customs let him leave?

  43. Diog

    I have mused on this. Is it more socially acceptable to say you vote Green or independent than to admit you vote for one of the majors?

  44. [The Federal Government is introducing new laws that will see Australians stripped of their welfare benefits if they are identified as a threat to national security.]

    You have to admire them.

    Combining dole bludgers, with terrorism, with Tony The Statesman is rather brilliant. And let’s not forget the recent backdown where the Freedom Repeal (and campaign promise) was abandoned in the name of Team Australia. Plus of course the anti-Putin sentiments, and the G20 un-invitation.

    You can’t accuse them of not trying to squeeze every last drop of blood out of the Terror Stone.

  45. Apparently there have been two cases of Australians using their brother’s passports to leave the country to join jihadists, both under Scott Morrison’s watch.

    I suppose it’s fair enough. All those Arabs look the same.

  47. 143

    I suspect that it is mainly usually greater campaign resources, voters who do not understand the preferential system being drawn to the “lesser of the evil” major parties to try and keep the party they dislike most out and undecided voters being mainly people trying to decide between the major parties bolstering the major parties when they decide.

    If voting for a minor party was more socially acceptable, why would there be

  48. [On Obama stating we need more people like Rabbott.

    Are we sure this wasn’t one of Obama’s back handed insults?]

    I would be highly surprised if he said it at all. They don’t like each other.

  50. I notice Abbott was waffling on about biometrics and passports. How about this from when he was a Minister.

    [Tomorrow’s passport today

    A new kind of passport is being issued to Australian citizens.

    The electronic passport – or ePassport – represents a major shift in passport technology, with the introduction of computer chips and biometrics.

    The move to the ePassport is about making sure that people applying for and using passports are who they say they are. It is about keeping your identity safe.

    From 24 October 2005, eligible applicants for new or renewed passports will be issued with the ePassport. All passports with a machine readable zone issued prior to 24 October remain valid. You do not need to obtain a new passport until your existing one expires. It will be accepted in all countries, including the US under the visa waiver program, for the duration of its validity.

    Research and development on the ePassport began in 2001 and Qantas cabin crew were the first Australian travellers to test the passport in 2005.

    Australia is not alone in developing an ePassport – countries the world over are heading in this direction.

    Compliance with standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization will ensure that every country’s ePassport can be used in every other country.

    Biometrics explained

    A biometric system is an automated means of recognising someone by measuring a distinguishing physical trait.

    Australia’s ePassport uses just one physical trait – the face. The information needed to generate the facial biometric information comes from the photograph supplied with the passport application. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade digitises the photograph you supply with your application. The digitised photo is stored in the passports database and in a computer chip in your ePassport. Using biometric technology, the passport photo can be digitally compared with another facial image to check that the two images are of the same person. The passport photo is used for identity verification and fraud detection.]

    So we know it was probably fraud that allowed 2 people to leave on others passports not human error. I wonder what the Minister responsible is doing?

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