|
THE POLL BLUDGER BOWMAN
Currently extending from Brisbane's outer coastal south, from Thorneside through Capalaba and Sheldon to Redland Bay, Bowman has been a crucial marginal seat since it was created with the expansion of parliament in 1949. The Liberals held it from then until the Menzies government's brush with death at the 1961 election, recovering it in 1963. It was one of Labor's many gains at the 1969 election, and has since had the same record as the more frequently touted bellwether Eden-Monaro, changing hands along with government in 1975, 1983 and 1996. Leonard Keogh held the seat for Labor from 1969 until 1975 and again after 1983, also contesting unsuccessfully in 1977 and 1980. He was defeated for preselection in 1987 by Con Sciacca, who lost the seat in 1996 and won it back in 1998. The Liberal member in the Fraser government period was David Jull, who re-emerged in Fadden in 1984; the one-term member from 1996 was Andrea West. The seat was dramatically affected by the redistribution at the 2004 election, at which it gained its current coastal area and lost Wynnum-Manly to the new seat of Bonner. This produced a 4.4 per cent shift in the Liberals' favour, prompting Sciacca to try his luck in Bonner (without success). Bowman subsequently fell to Liberal candidate Andrew Laming, an ophthalmologist and World Bank health consultant who boosted the notional 3.0 per cent Liberal margin with an impressive 5.9 per cent swing. Laming spent much of 2007 under the shadow of the “printgate” affair, in which he was investigated for allegedly claiming $67,000 in taxpayer funds to print campaign material for state election candidates. He was finally cleared by the Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions in late September. Crikey nonethetheless reported a rumour that he might yet be bumped aside by the Liberals in favour of Peter Dowling, a Redland Shire councillor. | |