By Jeremy Sollars
In case you’ve been living under a large rock this week – or have just been experiencing rodeo withdrawal symptoms – Queenslanders will go to the polls on Saturday 25 November.
ALP Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk finally put media pundits and candidates of all political persuasions out of their misery last weekend by calling an early Queensland election.
Under current parliamentary rules the Premier could have left her election run until as late as May next year, but the die is now cast.
Here in our own seat of Southern Downs we should have quite an interesting contest on our hands, with long-time LNP MP Lawrence Springborg retiring from State politics.
While ‘The Borg’ held the seat with an effectively bullet-proof margin of 19.2 per cent – the second safest LNP seat in Queensland after Surfers Paradise – history demonstrates that even in a ‘safe’ seat like ours when a long-time incumbent member quits, the race can open right up for all comers.
Replacing Lawrence Springborg in the LNP candidate corner is former RAAF officer James Lister, who will match up against current Goondiwindi councillor, businessman and former LNP stalwart Rob Mackenzie, who is running as an Independent after being unsuccessful in gaining the LNP endorsement for Southern Downs.
Also right there in the mix is Texas-based Josh Coyne for One Nation and The Greens’ Toowoomba-based candidate Antonia van Geuns. The ALP was yet to name its candidate for Southern Downs at time of printing of the Southern Free Times this week, although one rumour doing the rounds concerned a well-known Labor stalwart from the Stanthorpe area.
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About the State seat of Southern Downs …
* The Southern Downs electorate takes in the Warwick and Stanthorpe regions, along with Cecil Plains, Millmerran, Texas, Kindon, Yelarbon, Inglewood, Goondiwindi and west to Toobeah and Talwood. The New South Wales border forms its southernmost boundary.
* There were 33,501 enrolled voters at the last State election in 2015. Southern Downs was unaffected by the last redistribution of State electorate boundaries earlier this year.
* Southern Downs is the second-safest LNP seat in Queensland, held by Lawrence Springborg at the 2015 election with a margin of 19.2 per cent. The only safer Queensland LNP seat is Surfers Paradise.
* Southern Downs covers 30,953 square kilometres and is the Queensland’s eighth largest electorate.
