THE POLL BLUDGER
House of Representatives Election 2007

MARANOA
Nationals 21.0%

Maranoa covers the south of Queensland from Dalby west of Toowoomba out to the Northern Territory and South Australian borders. The redistribution has detached a large area in the north, including Winton and the Capricorn Highway towns of Longreach, Barcaldine and Emerald, to form the Nationals-voting end of the new seat of Flynn. It has existed since federation, originally occupying a much smaller area of the state's corner around Charleville and Dalby. A Labor stronghold at first, it fell to the newly founded Country Party in 1921 and has stayed with them for all but one term since. Bruce Scott had no trouble seeing off a Liberal candidate when he replaced the retiring Ian Cameron in 1990. After promising much, One Nation polled a fairly modest 15.1 per cent in 1998.

Labor's initial candidate, Shane Guley, was dumped during the second week of the campaign after his reputation for robust behaviour as an AMWU delegate emerged as a political liability. This didn’t seem to bother anybody when he ran at the 2004 election, at which time his colourful history was noted on this website. His replacement is Stanthorpe solicitor Mike Bathersby.