Burdekin – Queensland 2012

LNP 3.1%

Incumbent MP
Rosemary Menkens, since 2004.

Geography
North Queensland. Burdekin stretches from the southern outskirts of Townsville all the way south to Bowen. The main towns in the seat are Ayr and Bowen. The seat covers all of Burdekin LGA and parts of Townsville and Whitsunday LGAs.

History
The seat of Burdekin has existed since 1950. For most of that time the seat has been held by the Country/National Party, although it was held by One Nation and then Labor for two terms from 1998 to 2004.

The seat was won by independent Arthur Coburn in 1950. Coburn held the seat until 1969, when he was succeeded by the Country Party’s Val Bird.

Bird held the seat until his retirement in 1983, when he was replaced by Mark Stoneman. Stoneman held the seat until his retirement in 1998.

At the 1998 election, the seat was won by One Nation’s Jeff Knuth. Knuth, like most One Nation MPs, soon quit the party. He ended up joining the City Country Alliance and ran for them in 2001.

In 2001 Knuth lost to the ALP’s Steve Rodgers. Rodgers held the seat for one term, before losing to Rosemary Menkens of the National Party in 2004.

Rosemary Menkens retained the seat in 2006 and 2009. The 2009 redistribution made Burdekin a notional Labor seat, but Menkens gained a sufficient swing to retain the seat, this time for the Liberal National Party.

Candidates
Sitting Liberal National MP Rosemary Menkens is running for re-election. The ALP is running Angela Zyla. Katter’s Australian Party is running Ron Wadforth.

Political situation
Burdekin is a marginal LNP seat, but there shouldn’t be much threat from the Labor candidate in this environment. However this seat was strong for One Nation, and considering its location in north Queensland the seat may be a strong seat for Bob Katter’s new party. Indeed, former Burdekin MP Jeff Knuth’s brother Shane is a sitting MP who now sits with Katter’s party after leaving the LNP.

2009 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Rosemary Menkens LNP 13,438 50.5 +5.2
Les Walker ALP 11,648 43.8 -3.4
Maria Macdonald GRN 1,532 5.8 +1.8

2009 two-candidate-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Rosemary Menkens LNP 13,705 53.1 +4.0
Les Walker ALP 12,082 46.9 -4.0

Booth breakdown
Booths in Burdekin have been divided into three areas. Booths in Townsville LGA have been grouped as ‘west’, booths in Burdekin LGA have been grouped as ‘central’, and booths in Whitsunday LGA have been grouped as ‘east’.

The LNP won a large majority in the centre of the seat, by a margin of 29.4%. In the east, the ALP won by a 19.5% margin. In the west, the ALP outpolled the LNP by 8.2%.

Polling booths Burdekin at the 2009 state election. West in blue, Central in green, East in orange.

 

Voter group LNP % ALP % GRN % Total votes % of votes
Central 63.1 33.7 3.2 9,048 34.0
West 41.5 49.7 8.8 6,785 25.5
East 37.3 56.8 5.9 5,029 18.9
Other votes 52.8 41.1 6.1 5,756 21.6
Liberal National primary votes in Burdekin at the 2009 state election.
Labor primary votes in Burdekin at the 2009 state election.
Liberal National primary votes in the Ayr part of Burdekin at the 2009 state election.
Labor primary votes in the Ayr part of Burdekin at the 2009 state election.
Liberal National primary votes in the Townsville part of Burdekin at the 2009 state election.
Labor primary votes in the Townsville part of Burdekin at the 2009 state election.

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