Wide Bay – Election 2010

NAT 8.8%

Incumbent MP
Warren Truss, since 1990.

Geography
Wide Bay covers parts of the central Queensland coast, including the towns of Noosa, Gympie and Maryborough.

Redistribution
Wide Bay lost a small area south of Noosa to Fairfax, and gained areas to the north and west of Maryborough from Hinkler.

History
Wide Bay is an original federation electorate. It has been held for most of its history by the Nationals and its predecessors, although there have been two periods where it was held by the ALP for over a decade.

The seat was first won in 1901 by Gympie colonial MP Andrew Fisher, a prominent Labor member. Fisher had served as a minister in Anderson Dawson’s brief government in 1899, the first socialist government in the world.

Fisher served as a minister in Chris Watson’s federal Labor government in 1904, and became deputy leader of the ALP in 1905. He became the ALP’s leader in 1907. In 1908, Alfred Deakin’s minority government fell, and Fisher became Prime Minister at the head of a Labor minority government. This lasted until 1909, when Deakin returned to power at the head of a new unified Liberal party.

Fisher returned to office after the 1910 election, when the ALP won an unprecedented majority in the House of Representatives. This was the first time a party won a majority in a federal election. He governed until 1913, when he lost office to the Liberal Party, but he returned to power after Joseph Cook called a double dissolution in 1914. Fisher resigned from Parliament in 1915.

The ensuing Wide Bay by-election was won by Liberal candidate Edward Corser by only 86 votes. Corser was re-elected as a Nationalist in 1917, 1919, 1922 and 1925, dying in July 1928.

The 1928 Wide Bay by-election was won by Corser’s son, Bernard Corser, who stood for the Country Party. He held the seat until his retirement in 1954.

The seat was won in 1954 by the Country Party’s William Brand, who had previously served as a senior member of the party in the Queensland state parliament. He was re-elected in 1955 before retiring in 1958.

Wide Bay was won in 1958 by Country candidate Henry Bandidt, but lost in 1961 to the ALP’s Brendan Hansen. Hansen held Wide Bay until his retirement in 1974, and was elected to the Queensland state parliament for the seat of Maryborough from 1977 until 1983.

Upon Hansen’s retirement in 1974, the Country Party’s Clarrie Millar won back Wide Bay, and he held it until his retirement in 1990.

Wide Bay was won in 1990 by the National Party’s Warren Truss. Truss was made a junior minister in the Howard government in 1997 and joined the cabinet in 1999. He was elected Deputy Leader of the Nationals in 2005, and became Leader after the defeat of the Howard government, when previous leader Mark Vaile moved to the backbench.

Candidates

• Warren Truss (Liberal National) – Member for Wide Bay since 1990, Nationals leader since 2007.
• Santo Ferraro (One Nation)
• Ken Herschell (Family First)
• Jim McDonald (Greens)
• Nikolee Ansell (Labor)

Political situation
This is a very safe seat for the Nationals.

2007 result

2007 two-candidate-preferred result

Results do not take into consideration effects of the redistribution.

Booth breakdown
Most of the population of Wide Bay is in one of three local government areas: Sunshine Coast (centred on Noosa Heads), Gympie and Fraser Coast (centred on Maryborough). Each of these areas contains one of the three major centres of the seat, being Noosa, Gympie and Maryborough. The seat also contains a small part of South Burnett council area and Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council, which have been grouped with Gympie.

The Nationals won a majority in all three parts of the seat, although their majority varied in scale. The Nationals won just over 53% in the Fraser Coast area (including areas previously included in Hinkler). They polled 57% in the Sunshine Coast area and 62% in the Gympie area. The Greens polled much higher in the Sunshine Coast area, with over 12%, polling 6% in Gympie and 4% in Fraser Coast.