LIB 8.2%
Incumbent MP
Ian Macfarlane, since 1998.
Geography
Groom covers the city of Toowoomba and rural areas to the west of the city contained entirely within Toowoomba Region council area.
Redistribution
No changes were made to Groom’s boundaries.
History
Groom was created as part of the expansion of the House of Representatives at the 1984 election. The seat has always been held by Coalition MPs.
Groom was first won in 1984 by the National Party’s Tom McVeigh. McVeigh had been Member for Darling Downs since the 1972 election, and was elected Member for Groom in 1984 when Darling Downs was abolished. Darling Downs had previously centred on Toowoomba, which became the centre of the new seat of Groom.
McVeigh retired in 1988, triggering a by-election. The Liberal Party contested the by-election, and their candidate Bill Taylor outpolled the Nationals by 4.5% on primary votes and won a substantial majority on Labor preferences.
Taylor held the seat for a decade, retiring in 1998. The Nationals again challenged for the seat, but fell into fourth place behind Labor and One Nation, with the Liberal Party’s Ian Macfarlane winning the seat.
Macfarlane was made a junior minister in January 2001, and joined the Howard cabinet after the 2001 election as Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, a role he held for the remainder of the Howard government. Macfarlane has been a senior member of the Coalition frontbench since the defeat of the Howard government in 2007.
Candidates
- Rose Kirkwood (Family First)
- Frida Forsberg (Greens)
- Chris Meibusch (Labor)
- Rod Jeanneret (Independent)
- Ian Macfarlane (Liberal National)
Political situation
This seat is relatively safe for the Liberal National Party even after a large swing to the ALP at the last election. The LNP should be able to easily retain the seat in 2010.
2007 result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Ian Macfarlane | LIB | 43,880 | 52.71 | -7.52 |
| Chris Melbusch | ALP | 28,994 | 34.83 | +10.73 |
| Pauline Collins | GRN | 4,028 | 4.84 | +0.82 |
| Peter Findlay | FF | 3,649 | 4.38 | -1.99 |
| Rob Berry | IND | 715 | 0.86 | +0.86 |
| Grahame Volker | IND | 616 | 0.74 | +0.74 |
| Shalina Najeeb | DEM | 608 | 0.73 | -0.33 |
| Rod Jeanneret | IND | 497 | 0.60 | -1.75 |
| Irene Jones | CEC | 263 | 0.32 | -0.06 |
2007 two-candidate-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Ian Macfarlane | LIB | 48,468 | 58.22 | -10.59 |
| Chris Melbusch | ALP | 34,782 | 41.78 | +10.59 |
Booth breakdown
A majority of Groom lives in the city of Toowoomba. Booths in Toowoomba have been divided into south and north, with the centre of the city included in the north. The remainder of the seat has been also divided into north and south. The Liberal Party won a majority in all four areas, although their support varied remarkably. In the rural south (with the smallest population), the Liberal Party polled 67% of the two-party vote. They polled 62% in the rural north. The Liberals polled just under 58% in the southern suburbs of Toowoomba, while in the northern suburbs of Toowoomba they only polled 52% of the vote. The six booths won by the ALP are all in the northern suburbs of Toowoomba.
| Voter group | GRN % | FF % | LIB 2CP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| Toowoomba South | 4.93 | 4.72 | 57.87 | 25,403 | 30.51 |
| Toowoomba North | 5.48 | 3.99 | 52.63 | 25,147 | 30.21 |
| North | 3.87 | 5.34 | 62.23 | 11,558 | 13.88 |
| South | 3.04 | 4.62 | 67.55 | 6,185 | 7.43 |
| Other votes | 5.09 | 3.64 | 61.26 | 14,957 | 17.97 |
Toowoomba at a state level is surprisingly evenly split between Labor and Liberal but with Groom covering the greater rural area its hard to see this seat going anywhere but to the LNP in the foreseeable future. Slightly dissapointing Green vote given that there is a sizeable uni in Toowoomba.
Toowoomba is being pulled into greater Brisbane and this is apparent in an improving Labor vote but it will never outweigh the rural areas.
I missed this one, Chris Meibusch is running for the ALP again.
Frida Forsberg is the Greens candidate here.
The candidate for Family First is Rose Kirkwood, mother of two adult children and long-time charity worker. Kirkwood is a recognised speaker on domestic violence issues and currently works with the Toowoomba Salvation Army Crisis Centre
My prediction: LNP retain, 4-5% swing to them.
It would be a real shame if MacFarlane wins again. He has done absolutely nothing for Toowoomba, yet, every election he makes the same promise. The range will cost over 2 billion, yet, he promises 700 million. It’s never going to happen. They are going to use several hundred million to look for private investors. They would need a pretty busy toll road to reap back rewards on 1.75 billion investment. Also noted he promised the cancer PET machine for Toowoomba. This was already announced by the ALP. One has been paid for & on its way.
What a con!