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THE POLL BLUDGER RANKIN
One of only two Queensland Labor seats to survive the 1996 election, Rankin covers a stretch of Brisbane's southern suburbs from Woodridge west to Forestdale and Boronia Heights and east to Cornubia. It was created in 1984, when it extended far beyond the south-west of the metropolitan area to Warwick and the state border. This area was removed to Forde in the 1996 redistribution, which added 9.8 per cent to the margin – nearly every bit of which was needed to save Labor from an 11.1 per cent swing. The seat's inaugural member David Beddall retired in 1998 and was replaced by Craig Emerson. The seat has been substantially affected by the past two redistributions. In 2004 the Labor margin was cut from 6.7 per cent to 1.4 per cent when the seat gained Rochedale South, Springwood and Shailer Park east of the Pacific Motorway (from Fadden) and lost Sunnybank Hills, Runcorn, Algester, Stretton, Calamvale and Parkinson west of the Gateway Motorway (to Moreton). It now cedes further territory to Moreton, at Drewvale and Karawatha, and extends west beyond the Brisbane-Sydney Railway into Forestdale. | |