Toowoomba South

Margin: Liberal National 21.6%
Region: Regional City
Federal: Groom

Candidates in ballot paper order

	JOHN McVEIGH Liberal National (top) GRAHAM STOREY Labor (bottom) ANNE WATERS Greens

Located on the crest of the Great Dividing Range 130 kilometres west of Brisbane, the city of Toowoomba is divided by the Warrego Highway into the electorates of Toowoomba South and Toowomba North, with the latter encompassing most of the town centre. Whereas Toowoomba North was in Labor hands from 2001 to 2012, and earlier for a term after the 1989 election, Toowoomba South has been held by the National Party and the Liberal National Party since the 1974 landslide. The present division of Toowoomba into northern and southern electorates dates back to 1972, and replaced an arrangement of Toowoomba East and Toowoomba West that in turn went back to 1960, before which the city was encompassed by a single electorate. Prior to the 1974 landslide the city had leaned somewhat to Labor, who had held both of its electorates since 1966.

Toowoomba South was held for the Nationals and then the Liberal National Party from 1991 to 2012 by Mike Horan, who passed largely untroubled by the challenges of One Nation in 1998 and the Peter Beattie landslide in 2001. After the 2001 election he served as Nationals leader until February 2003, when he was deposed by Lawrence Springborg. The redistribution before the 2009 election led to suggestions Horan should make way for up-and-coming MP Stuart Copeland, whose seat of Cunningham had been abolished. But Horan remained set on serving another term, and Copeland ran unsuccessfully in the new seat of Condamine as an independent.

With Horan’s retirement in 2012, Toowoomba South passed to John McVeigh, previously a Toowoomba councillor and agribusiness management consultant. After increasing the LNP margin at the election from 8.1% to 21.6%, McVeigh won immediate promotion to cabinet as Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister.

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