Yeerongpilly – Queensland 2012

ALP 8.7%

Incumbent MP
Simon Finn, since 2004.

Geography
Southern Brisbane. Yeerongpilly covers the suburbs of Yeronga, Annerley, Fairfield, Tarragindi, Moorooka, Salisbury, Yeerongpilly and parts of Macgregor.

History
The seat of Yeerongpilly has existed since 2001, and existed under the name of Yeronga from 1950 to 2001. The seat was held by the Liberal Party until 1989 and has been held by the ALP ever since.

Winston Noble served as the first member for Yeronga, holding it from 1950 to 1964. He was succeeded by Norman Lee, who held the seat until 1989.

In 1989 the seat was won by Labor candidate Matt Foley in the Labor landslide that saw the Goss government take power. Foley became a minister in the Beattie government following the 1998 election. In 2001 he was re-elected in the renamed seat of Yeerongpilly, holding it until his retirement in 2004.

Simon Finn won the seat of Yeerongpilly in 2004, also for the Labor Party. He was re-elected in 2006 and 2009, and has served as Minister for Government Services, Building Industry and Information and Communication Technology since February 2011.

Candidates
Sitting Labor MP Simon Finn is running for re-election. The LNP is running Carl Judge. The Greens are running Libby Connors.

Political situation
The 8.7% margin that Simon Finn holds this seat by would normally be considered solid but would fall if current polling was to translate into a uniform swing.

2009 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Simon Finn ALP 12,846 46.3 -4.4
Julianna Kneebone LNP 9,766 35.2 +4.0
Libby Connors GRN 4,431 16.0 +0.3
Tom McCosker DSQ 716 2.6 +2.6

2009 two-candidate-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Simon Finn ALP 15,236 58.7 -4.1
Julianna Kneebone LNP 10,705 41.3 +4.1

Booth breakdown
Booths in Yeerongpilly have been divided into three areas: Annerley in the north, Tarragindi in the centre and Moorooka in the south.

The ALP outpolled the LNP in all three areas, with the margin varying from 4.1% in Tarragindi to 20.3% in Moorooka.

Polling booths in Yeerongpilly at the 2009 state election. Annerley in blue, Moorooka in orange, Tarragindi in blue.
Voter group ALP % LNP % GRN % Total votes % of votes
Annerley 43.5 36.0 17.2 8,096 29.2
Tarragindi 42.9 38.8 15.9 6,579 23.7
Moorooka 52.1 31.8 14.0 6,418 23.1
Other votes 47.4 33.9 16.4 6,666 24.0
Labor primary votes in Yeerongpilly at the 2009 state election.
Liberal National primary votes in Yeerongpilly at the 2009 state election.
Greens primary votes in Yeerongpilly at the 2009 state election.

11 COMMENTS

  1. Tarragindi in green I assume. Simon Finn has been involved in a rather silly incident in which he tabled photos in parliament from the LNP’s Ros Bates Facebook page, claiming it was unacceptable to tolerate the “glorification of weaponry”. The photos were of Ros standing next to her son (an Army Rifleman) and some rocket launchers at a military event, but also included other personnel who were on standby for active duty.
    http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/facebook-fracas-mp-furious-at-rocket-launcher-attack-20111115-1ngtd.html

  3. The Green vote will be particularly interesting this time, as we have an LNP leader who has a solid record of green initiatives whilst Lord Mayor of Brisbane, including planting 2 million trees, 700 new (gas powered) buses, the whole of BCC locations running on green electricity, etc. Where will that Green vote go?

    You have an LNP local candidate who either cycles to work, or catches public transport.

    The sitting AL{P member and minister has been largely silent, scoring a D for performance as a State ALP Minister, with the Sunday Mail review, and saying that state money wasted on an email system which has been largely ignored by the government departments, is not taxpayers money, because it is government money.

  4. If the Green vote is high in Yeromgpilly then the residents of these riverside suburbs must have short memories.

    When I stood against Norm Lee in Yeronga in 1974 I was advocating flood mittigatuion strategies such as Dam builkding. 37 YEars later numerous LNP & ALP giovernments have chosen to leave residents of Yeronga flood prone. Bjelke Peterson, Borbidge, Ahern, Goss, BEattie and Bligh have all chosen to leave YEronga undefended.

    It is time to build more dams so that Somerset can do the job it was built for.

    If that kills a Mary Valley Lungfish -so be it.

    What a choice you face Dumb, Dumber or Dumest.

    I hopre for your sake that YEronga has a choice wider than the group listed above.

    THe Greens have opposed every dam proposal. They just want humanity flooded out of the way by water.

    Put Greens last. They hate the residents of Yerongpilly jut as they hate the residents of the rest of Queensland.

    Andrew Jackson
    apjackson@hotkey.net.au

  5. For disclosure purposes, Andrew Jackson is the Qld state president of the DLP. (The name seemed familiar, so that took a quick google and three clicks to figure out.)

    Also, Andrew, put some oil in your shift key… it seems to be stuck. THis sort of THing MAkes your various online posts even more identifiable than they otherwise would be.

  6. Hi Anton,

    I live in the Yeerongpilly electorate and the demographics have changed in the last two decades throughout the seat. My prediction is that Simon Finn will narrowly retain this seat largely on the back of Greens preferences.

  7. Out of interest, is the John Matthews commenting negatively about the sitting ALP member for Yeerongpilly either the John Matthews who is the LNP candidate’s campaign manager or the John Matthews who wanted to run for the seat of Ashgrove?

    Just a thought….what happened to declaring vested interests when discussing candidates? Happy voting!

  8. LNP narrow gain. Yet another seat where Green leaching of Labor’s primary vote will be the decisive factor.

  9. MDMConnell, I just read all your predictions for each seat, and couldn’t help but noticing that you forgot Albert and Algester.

    Just thought I’d let you know.

  11. Spot on MDMConnell…..the two parties on the Left combine to destroy themselves and hand the seat narrowly to the LNP.

    Bring on compulsory preferences!

Comments are closed.