Mount Ommaney
Margin: Liberal National 16.5%
Region: Southern Brisbane
Federal: Moreton/Oxley
Candidates in ballot paper order
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TARNYA SMITH JENNY MULKEARNS KATHLEEN HEWLETT JESSICA PUGH |
ELECTORATE MAP |
2012 ELECTION RESULTS |
DEMOGRAPHICS |
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Electorate boundary outline courtesy of
Ben Raue of The Tally Room.
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Located on the southern bank of the Brisbane River 10 kilometres south-west of the city centre, Mount Ommaney produced the third biggest swing to the Liberal National Party of the 2012 election, turning Labor’s 4.8% margin from 2009 into its current LNP margin of 16.5%. The electorate extends from Mount Ommaney itself west to Riverhills and east to Corinda, with the conservative vote being strongest around the riverfront at Jindalee and Corinda. The electorate ranks tenth in the state for ethnic diversity, containing particularly large Indian and Vietnamese communities.
Mount Ommaney was created at the 1992 election from parts of two abolished electorates, the Liberal seat of Sherwood and the Labor seat of Wolston. It was won for Labor on debut by Peter Pyke, later to emerge as Katter’s Australian Party candidate for Toowoomba North in 2012, before falling to Liberal candidate Bob Harper in 1995. The seat again changed hands at the 1998 election when it was won for Labor by Julie Attwood, who retained the seat by margins of around 10% at the peak of Labor’s fortunes in 2001, 2004 and 2006, before falling back to 4.8% in 2009.
Attwood retired at the 2012 election, and the seat was duly won for the LNP by Tarnya Smith, owner of a wholesale butcher who had previously worked with Queensland Health. On election she attained the position of deputy government whip, and won promotion to the outer ministry in February 2013 as Assistant Child Safety Minister. Her Labor opponent at the coming election is Jessica Pugh, a restaurant events manager and former adviser to Beattie-Bligh government minister Craig Wallace.
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