Murrumba

Margin: Liberal National 9.5%
Region: Northern Brisbane
Federal: Longman/Petrie

Candidates in ballot paper order

	SIMONE DEJUN Greens CHRIS WHITING Labor (bottom) REG GULLEY Liberal National (top) RAY HUTCHINSON Family First

The northern Brisbane seat of Murrumba was one of the less surprising entries on Labor’s casualty list at the 2012 election, a solid swing at the 2009 election having cut the Labor margin to 5.4%. The electorate covers outer northern Brisbane suburbs around Deception Bay, including the growth hotspot of North Lakes. Deception Bay is the electorate’s strongest area for Labor, the remainder including conservative-voting territory around Rothwell immediately to the south and Burpengary in the north.

Murrumba has had an uninterrupted existence as an electorate going back to 1912, but was a rurally oriented National/Country Party seat until urbanisation caught up with the area in the 1970s. Joe Kruger won it for Labor at the 1977 election and held it until his retirement in 1986, when he was succeeded by Dean Wells, who had won the federal seat of Petrie for Labor in 1983 but lost it again in 1984. Wells went on to serve as Attorney-General in the Goss government, Education Minister in the Beattie government’s first term, and Environment Minister in its second. Loss of support from his Labor Forum/AWU faction cost him his position after the 2004 election, and he served out three terms on the back bench up to his defeat in 2012.

The seat has since been held for the Liberal National Party by Reg Gulley, an accountant and business manager for a not-for-profit organisation who ran for the Liberals in 2006. Gulley’s win in 2012 came off the back of a 14.9% swing, a result well in line with the overall pattern across Brisbane. His Labor opponent at the coming election is Chris Whiting, a Burpengary real estate agent who served for 12 years on Caboolture Shire Council and its successor Moreton Bay Regional Council, before unsuccessfully running for the mayoralty in 2012.

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

Back to Crikey’s Queensland election guide