Bulimba

Margin: Liberal National 0.1%
Region: Inner Brisbane
Federal: Bonner/Griffith

Candidates in ballot paper order

	AARON DILLAWAY Liberal National (top) DI FARMER Labor (bottom) DAVID HALE Greens

The inner eastern Brisbane seat of Bulimba gave the Liberal National Party the narrowest of its victories in the 44 seats it gained at the 2012 election, when Labor member Di Farmer fell 75 votes short of retaining her seat and giving Labor an eighth member of parliament. This was despite the seat being by no means Labor’s safest going into the election, with the swing to the LNP being the lowest of any seat in south-eastern Queensland.

Bulimba has had an uninterrupted existence going back to 1873, having originally occupied most of south-eastern Brisbane. It now covers the southern bank of the Brisbane River from Galloways Hill through Bulimba to Doboy, and extends south through Morningside to Cannon Hill. Labor’s relative strength reflects an inner-city rather than a low-income demographic profile identity, the electorate ranking sixth in the state for highest income. The Labor vote is strongest at the southern end, with the conservative vote increasing near the river in the north.

Apart from two brief interruptions involving sitting members leaving the party, Labor held Bulimba from 1932 to 2012. The member from 1992 to 2009 was Beattie government minister Pat Purcell, who was considered likely to be disendorsed in 2009 had he not chosen to retire, as he faced charges for assault against two public servants (which were later withdrawn following mediation). He was succeeded for a term by Di Farmer, who will now seek to recover the seat at the coming election. Farmer had previously been a speech pathologist and party activist, and sought preselection for Woodridge in 2000 following the resignation of Bill D’Arcy, then fighting child sex charges for which he would be convicted later in the year. She lost out on that occasion to Mike Kaiser, whose parliamentary career would shortly founder upon the Shepherdson inquiry into electoral fraud.

Bulimba is presently held for the LNP by Aaron Dillaway, a business manager who had been offered the seat as consolation after being obliged to make way for Campbell Newman as candidate for Ashgrove. The two seats in fact had very similar margins, but the uncommonly mild swing meant the latter proved the harder nut to crack.

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

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