Moreton – Election 2010

ALP 6.0%

Incumbent MP
Graham Perrett, since 2007.

Geography
Southern Brisbane. Moreton covers suburbs on the southern side of the Brisbane River to the south of the centre of Brisbane, including Sunnybank, Runcorn, Eight Mile Plains, Acacia Ridge, Coopers Plains, Rocklea, Salisbury, Moorooka, Oxley, Corinda, Graceville and Fairfield.

Redistribution
Moreton lost areas around Calamvale at the southern end of the seat to Rankin. In exchange it gained territory along its western boundary from Oxley, including Acacia Ridge, Oxley and Corinda.

History
Moreton is an original federation electorate. For most of its history it has been held by the Liberal Party and its predecessors, who held the seat from 1906 until 1990, but since 1990 it has become a bellwether seat, being won by the party that won the election nationally.

Moreton was won in 1901 by independent labour candidate James Wilkinson, a former member of the colonial Legislative Assembly. Wilkinson was re-elected as an independent in 1903, and rejoined the ALP in 1904.

Wilkinson lost Moreton in 1906 to Anti-Socialist candidate Hugh Sinclair. Sinclair held the seat for over a decade, representing the Commonwealth Liberal Party and the Nationalist Party until his retirement in 1919.

Sinclair was succeeded in Moreton by former state MP Arnold Wienholt, also a Nationalist. Wienholt only held the seat for one term, retiring in 1922.

The seat was won in 1922 by Nationalist candidate Joseph Francis. Francis held the seat for over three decades. He served as a minister in the first term of the Lyons government from 1932 to 1934, and again served as a minister from the election of the Menzies government in 1949 until his retirement in 1955.

Moreton was won in 1955 by Liberal candidate James Killen. Killen was on the right wing of the Liberal Party, and held the seat for the next 29 years. At the 1961 election the Menzies government barely held on, and Killen’s seat of Moreton was the closest result. Indeed, Killen only held on due to Communist Party preferences leaking away from the Labor candidate. Killen served as a minister in the Gorton government from 1969 until 1971 but was dropped by William McMahon when he became Prime Minister.

Killen served as Minister for Defence in the Fraser government from 1975 until 1982, when a reshuffle saw him moved into a more junior role for the final year of the Fraser government. He retired in 1983 after the defeat of the Fraser government, triggering a by-election.

The ensuing by-election was won by Liberal candidate Donald Cameron. Cameron had previously held the seat of Griffith from 1966 to 1977, and then the seat of Fadden until the 1983 election, when he was defeated. He returned to Parliament as Member for Moreton and held it until the 1990 election, when he was defeated by Labor candidate Garrie Gibson, ending 84 years of Moreton being held by conservative parties.

Gibson held the seat until the 1996 election, when he lost to Liberal candidate Gary Hardgrave. Hardgrave served as a junior minister from 2001 until January 2007, when he was removed from the ministry in a reshuffle. Hardgrave lost the 2007 election to Labor candidate Graham Perrett.

Candidates

Political situation
This seat has a recent history of swinging with national swings, and considering the large swings across Queensland to the ALP in 2007, a 6% margin is not insurmountable if the Liberal National Party perform strongly in Brisbane.

2007 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Graham Perrett ALP 37,908 47.11 +7.27
Gary Hardgrave LIB 33,921 42.16 -5.41
Emma Hine GRN 5,548 6.89 +1.12
Steve Christian FF 1,113 1.38 -1.40
Emad Soliman DEM 1,015 1.26 -0.41
Andrew Lamb IND 679 0.84 -0.10
Shane Brown LDP 282 0.35 +0.35

2007 two-candidate-preferred result

 

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Graham Perrett ALP 44,055 54.75 +7.58
Gary Hardgrave LIB 36,411 45.25 -7.58

Results do not take into consideration effects of the redistribution.

Booth breakdown
I have divided Moreton into three areas, the south, north-east and north-west. Just over 50% live in the southern part of the seat.

The ALP won a majority in all three regions, polling 59% in the north-east, 56% in the south and 54% in the north-west. The Greens performed much more strongly in the north-east.

 

Polling booths in Moreton. North-east in green, North-west in blue, South in yellow.
Voter group GRN % ALP 2CP % Total votes % of ordinary votes
South 4.89 56.11 39,379 56.77
North-East 10.32 59.32 17,326 24.98
North-West 8.96 54.09 12,655 18.25
Other votes 6.23 61.12 12,830
Results of the 2007 federal election in Moreton.

16 COMMENTS

  5. The DLP candidate for Moreton Lee Nightingale had the pleasure to meet & hand over 5000 flyers to Mr Greg Bayless DLP candidate 1969.
    The story goes that Jim Killen won the seat by 16 communist preferences(delivering the coalition another term) but the fact was the DLP had delivered the seat to Jim by 130 Votes.

    Fiction sometimes makes a better story.

    Greg now 75 (and still an active member) intends to keep fit handing out the flyers in Moreton and helping in a seat that has yet to field an LNP candidate.

    Keep up the good work Greg and all the Best Lee.

  7. Dear readers,

    I write to correct Tony Zegenhagen’s misinformation that I have ‘thrown in the towell’ (sic).

    Readers must be aware that I stood down from running in 2007, quite early in the campaign, due to ill-health. This is similar to Liberal candidate Michael Palmer standing down this time due to ill-health. I wish Mr Palmer all the best and look forward to meeting his replacement, Malcolm Cole. It seems that Mr Zegenhagen has read a very old blog post of mine.

    Right now I’m pleased to report that I’m fighting fit! My benign tumour, located at the base of my brain, is under control now after an ongoing course of medication and specialist support from some excellent Queensland health specialists. It’s actually a condition quite common to women, but being that it can cause infertility it is best not left unchecked.

    I’m quite well now, although suffering a bit of a chesty cough, much like many others in Brisbane winter.

    I wish good health and happiness to all.

    Kind regards,

    Elissa.

  9. Its interesting to see the demographics of the electorate. Its well and truly one of Queensland’s most multicultural seats, around 20% of the population is of Asian background. Theres also a strong Eastern European population, Islamic population and African population- mainly from South Africa and Sudan.

  10. Elissa Jenkins sounds like a fantastic candidate, I actually thought that before I read what she wrote on July 1. She sounds like an enthusiastic and well-rounded human being. I am by no means a Greens voter but I wish her all the best of luck in Moreton.

  12. Very disappointing that neither LNP or Labor candidates have Facebook pages up – only the Greens.

  13. I voted informal last time as I am sick of the ALP and Libs stand for nothing polcies. Am probably going to go DLP this time. I was born way after the old DLP stuff but the seem to have a fresh approach.

  15. That’s a classic. I’ve not met Graham Perrett but that clip tells me everything I need to know!

Comments are closed.