ALP 11.7%
Incumbent MP
Craig Emerson, since 1998
Geography
Rankin covers suburbs in both the City of Brisbane and the City of Logan in the southern parts of the greater Brisbane region. Suburbs include Algester, Calamvale, Hillcrest, Regents Park, Heritage Park, Crestmead, Kingston, Chatswood Hills and Springwood.
Redistribution
Rankin previously was entirely contained within the City of Logan. It was a long, thin seat, and suburbs on its eastern and western fringe to Forde and Wright. In exchange it gained the Brisbane suburbs of Algester and Calamvale from Oxley and Moreton.
History
The seat of Rankin was created in 1984 as part of the expansion of the House of Representatives. It has always been held by the Labor Party. It originally covered Beaudesert and the Gold Coast hinterland but it has gradually moved into safer areas closer to Brisbane.
The seat was first won in 1984 by Labor MP David Beddall. Beddall had won the marginal seat of Fadden off the Liberal Party in 1983 before moving to Rankin. Beddall joined the Hawke ministry after the 1990 election and joined the Labor cabinet after the 1993 election, serving as a cabinet minister until the defeat of the Keating government in 1996. He retired from Rankin in 1998.
Rankin was won in 1998 by Labor candidate Craig Emerson. Emerson joined the Labor shadow ministry following the 2001 election, and has been a minister in the Labor government since the 2007 election.
Candidates
- Alexandra Todd (Family First)
- Luke Smith (Liberal National) – Logan councillor.
- Neil Cotter (Greens)
- Craig Emerson (Labor) – Member for Rankin since 1998, Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy.
Political situation
This was one of only two Labor seats in Queensland after the 1996 election, and should easily be held by the ALP in any plausible scenario at the 2010 election.
2007 result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Craig Emerson | ALP | 44,858 | 56.01 | +12.22 |
| Peter Coulson | LIB | 27,299 | 34.09 | -3.01 |
| Neil Cotter | GRN | 3,773 | 4.71 | +1.50 |
| Bert Van Manen | FF | 2,827 | 3.53 | -1.59 |
| Salam El-Merebi | DEM | 590 | 0.74 | -0.11 |
| Liam Tjia | LDP | 463 | 0.58 | +0.58 |
| Robert Meyers | CEC | 273 | 0.34 | +0.13 |
2007 two-candidate-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Craig Emerson | ALP | 49,440 | 61.74 | +8.76 |
| Peter Coulson | LIB | 30,643 | 38.26 | -8.76 |
Results do not take into consideration effects of the redistribution.
Booth breakdown
A majority of Rankin lies within the City of Logan, with another part (consisting of all those areas transferred from Oxley and Moreton) is within the City of Brisbane. I have divided the Logan booths into North-east, South-east and South-west, while the remainder is grouped as “Calamvale”.
All four areas have 20-30% of ordinary votes cast. The ALP won majorities in all areas. In the southern areas they polled 67-69%, while in the North-East and Calamvale they polled less than 55%.
| Voter group | GRN % | ALP 2CP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| South-West | 4.07 | 67.36 | 19,064 | 28.31 |
| South-East | 4.30 | 69.40 | 18,680 | 27.74 |
| North-East | 5.35 | 52.77 | 15,459 | 22.96 |
| Calamvale | 3.63 | 54.67 | 14,135 | 20.99 |
| Other votes | 5.29 | 61.48 | 13,658 |
Might be interesting to know that Rankin originally covered Warwick and Inala.
Rankin used to be an extreme example of a redistribution that combined very fast growing outer suburban Labor areas with static or declining population conservative rural areas such as Warwick. The objective was to average out population growth. Will Emerson be the next Environment minister?
When created, it was a southern Qld seat somewhat similar to Wright in that it was made from leftover bits.
Geoff’s right – Fadden, Forde, Fisher (and probably a few more) had to include fast growing areas and areas with stable/declining populations.
“This was the only Labor seat in South-East Queensland that survived John Howard’s landslide, and should easily be held by the ALP in any plausible scenario at the 2010 election.”
Wow, that’s quite a stat. Didn’t Arch Beavis hold, or was he booted too?
Oops, I got the stat wrong. Brisbane and Rankin were the only Labor seats in Queensland.
Yeah, that’s easy to get confused about, Bevis did look like losing on election night as I recall.
Logan City Councillor Luke Smith is the LNP candidate here.
I think the electorate of Rankin has has its fair share of Mr Emerson. It’s time for a change, and this is coming from me, a Labor supporter. I have had enough of the Member for Rankin not doing anything but sending out birthday cards to people, using up our TAX money as a means to encourage us to vote for him. That is a pretty cheap way to lewering people in. The funny thing is that it works. I asked a mature lady the other day who shes was going to vote for. She replied to me that she was going to vote for Craig Emerson because he sent her a Birthday card, I smiled and said good day to her. But seriously people wake up to yourselves!!!We need our money to be invested in Rankin rather than on Birthday Cards, and realistically speaking it is not a case of whether the MP is a Labor or a Liberal one, it’s a case of the MP actually doing somthing for his electorate. And in saying that I think Mr Emerson performance has been shocking. I’m voting Liberal this time round and I think it’s a vote for the better.
My prediction: 3-4% swing to LNP.
I want ADSL for PARKINSON and SOURROUNDING area!!!
sick of it after waiting for 2+ years – and more for some people.