Currumbin

Margin: Liberal National 20.2%
Region: Gold Coast
Federal: McPherson

Candidates in ballot paper order

	ASHLEY WAIN Labor (bottom) KRISTIAN REES Palmer United Party BEN DONOVAN Family First DEBORAH GRAVENALL One Nation JANN STUCKEY Liberal National (top) DAVID WYATT Greens

Now held by the Liberal National Party on a formidable margin, Currumbin was once Labor’s strongest seat on the Gold Coast, having been held for the party by Merri Rose from 1992 to 2004. The electorate covers the coast for five kilometres immediately north of the New South Wales border, from Coolangatta north to Palm Beach, and extends about 20 kilometres inland through the valley that gives it its name.

Currumbin was held for the Nationals from its creation in 1986 until the collapse of the party’s vote in 1989, when Trevor Coomber won it for the Liberals with a margin of 0.9% over Labor. When Coomber abandoned the seat at the 1992 election for a quixotic tilt at Surfers Paradise, which was then held for the Nationals by future Premier Rob Borbidge, Currumbin bucked the statewide trend by delivering a decisive swing to Labor of 5.8%.

Rose survived the 1995 backlash against the Goss government and looked to be sitting pretty when her margin blew out to 14.5% in the 2001 landslide. However, her career was soon derailed due to controversies over her electorate car and ongoing allegations of bullying against staff members and drivers, which resulted in her being dumped from the ministry during the 2004 election campaign. She was then unseated by Liberal candidate Jann Stuckey, owner of a communications consultancy, whose 17.7% swing was by far the biggest of the election. Rose went on to be imprisoned in May 2007 for demanding a benefit with threats, the benefit being a position with Tourism Queensland, and the victim being Peter Beattie.

Stuckey’s margin was pared back from 3.2% to 2.2% at the 2006 election, which was perhaps a measure of the weight Rose was applying to the Labor vote in 2004. However, she soon consolidated her hold with swings of 4.7% in 2009 and 13.3% in the 2012 landslide. She won a position on the front bench when the Coalition agreement was finalised in September 2005, and settled in the manufacturing portfolio when Campbell Newman became extra-parliamentary leader in March 2011. After the 2012 election victory she was assigned to tourism, major events, small business and Commonwealth Games.

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

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