Beaudesert

Margin: Liberal National 10.6% versus KAP
Region: Rural South-Eastern
Federal: Wright

Candidates in ballot paper order

	KAY HOHENHAUS Labor (bottom) ADELE ISHAAC Palmer United Party PIETRO AGNOLETTO Greens JON KRAUSE Liberal National (top) JEREMY FREDERICKS Family First ROBERT BOWYER One Nation

Beaudesert is a naturally conservative electorate covering small towns and rural territory inland of the Gold Coast, which was in Katter’s Australian Party hands for the latter part of the previous term after then member Aidan McLindon fell out with the Liberal National Party. The electorate extends from Tamborine at its eastern end to Rosevale, 80 kilometres to the west. Labor is only slightly weaker than the LNP in the semi-urban area around Jimboomba in the north-east, but its support diminishes rapidly deeper into the interior.

The electorate was created at the 1992 election in place of abolished Fassifern, the two seats between them being held by Kev Lingard of the Nationals from 1983 until his retirement in 2009. The biggest threats to Lingard’s hold on the seat emerged in 1998, when his primary vote slumped from 56.3% to 31.9% amid the challenge of One Nation, and 2001, when he was twice lucky in finishing ahead of One Nation in the race for second and Labor in the race for first. The margin blew out again amid the relative tranquillity of 2004 and 2006, and Lingard was able to bequeath a comfortable margin to Aidan McLindon in 2009.

McLindon’s political career began with his election to Logan City Council at 23, to be followed five years later by his preselection for Beaudesert. This was achieved despite him tarnishing his young conservative credentials as a member of “punk grindcore” band KILL TV. McLindon’s 2009 campaign was complicated by Pauline Hanson’s decision to run, and took an even stranger turn with the short-lived entry of flamboyant former Sydney Swans AFL player Warwick Capper, a venture that came unstuck when he failed to get his nomination in by the deadline. It was also at this time that the Sunday Telegraph newspaper infamously published what were purportedly semi-nude photographs of a 19-year-old Pauline Hanson, but which turned out not to be her. McLindon had little trouble retaining the seat for the LNP, despite a drop in the primary vote from 49.2% to 37.9%. Hanson finished third with 21.2% behind Labor with 24.8%, and preferences left McLindon with a two-party margin of 8.3% over Labor.

McLindon’s career with the parliamentary LNP lasted barely a year, the curtain coming down in the wake of a failed challenge to Lawrence Springborg’s deputy leadership in May 2011. This was followed first by McLindon quitting the party in tandem with Burnett MP Rob Messenger, and then by his unveiling of the new Queensland Party. McLindon went on to merge the party into Katter’s Australian Party in August 2011, to the displeasure of some of his prospective candidates. Two KAP candidates at the 2012 election were able to win seats in northern and western Queensland, but McLindon proved no match for the LNP tide in the south. His primary vote of 26.4% compared with 47.1% for LNP candidate Jon Krause, which was a 9.2% higher than what McLindon had received as LNP candidate at the previous election.

Elected to parliament at the age of 30, Jon Krause had previously been a solicitor working for the National Australia Bank, before becoming the second or arguably third candidate the LNP settled on in the lead-up to the 2012 election. The first was John Brent, Scenic Rim mayor and reported preselection front-runner, who withdrew his nomination after becoming the subject of a Department of Local Government misconduct inquiry, which would end with all charges being dismissed. The preselection was then won by Andrew Macarthur, a former general manager of Stanbroke Pastoral Company, but he withdrew in early April 2011 citing personal reasons.

Corrections, complaints and feedback to William Bowe at pollbludger-at-bigpond-dot-com. Read William’s blog, The Poll Bludger.

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