Council margin – ALP 4.0%
Mayoral margin – LNP 6.5%
Incumbent councillor
Milton Dick, councillor for Richlands since 2008.
Geography
South-western Brisbane. Forest Lake covers the suburbs of Richlands, Doolandella and Inala, on the southern edge of Brisbane City.
Redistribution
Forest Lake is considered a replacement for Richlands ward. The ward lost western parts of Richlands to Jamboree and north-eastern parts to Moorooka. In exchange, Forest Lake gained western parts of Parkinson ward. These changes cut the ALP council margin from 17.7% to 4%. Richlands was the only ward in 2012 where the ALP won the mayoral vote, with a 1.7% margin, but Forest Lake now has a 3.8% LNP mayoral margin.
History
Richlands was previously considered a safe Labor ward. Labor’s Les Bryant was elected in the area as councillor for Inala in 1991.
A redistribution in 1994 replaced Inala with Richlands, and Bryant shifted to that ward. He was re-elected in 1997, 2000 and 2004.
In 2004, Bryant’s margin was 15.8%. The 2008 redistribution expanded the Labor margin to 18.9%.
Bryant retired before the 2008 election, and was succeeded by Milton Dick, who held on despite a 14.9% swing to the LNP.
Dick was re-elected in 2012, winning a 13.7% swing while Labor was losing ground across the city, and has served as leader of the opposition on the council since 2012.
Candidates
Sitting Labor councillor Milton Dick is not running for re-election, as he will be running for the federal seat of Oxley later in 2016.
- Charles Strunk (Labor)
- Leanne McFarlane (Liberal National)
- Jenny Mulkearns (Greens)
Assessment
The wards previously covering the Forest Lake were considered to be safe Labor wards. Labor should hold on to Forest Lake, and if there is a rebalancing of the council you would expect Labor to gain ground. On the other hand, Labor may suffer from the loss of their sitting councillor.
2012 council result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Milton Dick | Labor | 13,341 | 67.7 | +19.4 | 54.0 |
| Rachel Bickel | Liberal National | 6,363 | 32.3 | -9.9 | 46.0 |
| Informal | 613 | 3.0 |
2012 mayoral result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Ray Smith | Labor | 8,767 | 45.0 | +2.0 | 38.2 |
| Graham Quirk | Liberal National | 8,537 | 43.8 | -2.5 | 51.7 |
| Andrew Bartlett | Greens | 1,405 | 7.2 | +0.4 | 6.5 |
| Rory Killen | Independent | 538 | 2.8 | +2.8 | 2.5 |
| Chris Carson | Independent | 241 | 1.2 | +1.2 | 1.1 |
| Informal | 776 | 3.8 |
2012 mayoral two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Ray Smith | Labor | 9,316 | 51.7 | +2.9 | 43.5 |
| Graham Quirk | Liberal National | 8,711 | 48.3 | -2.9 | 56.5 |
| Exhausted | 1,461 |
Booth breakdown
Booths in Forest Lake have been split into three parts: central, north and south. Central and north were previously in Richlands, while the south was previously in Parkinson.
The ALP won 72-77% of the council two-party-preferred in the centre and north, and 59-63% of the mayoral two-party-preferred.
In the south, the LNP polled 61% of the council vote, and 68% of the mayoral two-party-preferred vote.
| Voter group | ALP council 2PP | LNP mayoral 2PP | Total votes | % of votes |
| South | 39.1 | 68.1 | 9,022 | 39.7 |
| Central | 72.8 | 40.6 | 5,178 | 22.8 |
| North | 76.9 | 37.0 | 3,331 | 14.7 |
| Other votes | 29.5 | 63.8 | 5,188 | 22.8 |
