THE POLL BLUDGER
Queensland Legislative Assembly Election 2006

INDOOROOPILLY
Labor 2.1%

Indooroopilly covers the inner suburbs immediately west of the city, from Indooroopilly itself south to Fig Tree Pocket. It was created at the 1992 election in place of abolished Toowong, a traditional Liberal seat which was among those that fell to the National Party in 1983. Denver Beanland recovered it for the Liberals at the 1986 election and went on to become the inaugural member for Indooroopilly, serving as Attorney-General in the Rob Borbidge government of 1996-98. Beanland encountered all manner of trouble in the latter role deriving from the government's hostile relationship with the Criminal Justice Commission, at one point losing a non-binding no-confidence motion with the support of independent Gladstone MP Liz Cunningham. This presumably contributed to the jolting 12.5 per cent swing Beanland suffered at the 1998 election, which cut his margin to 0.7 per cent. The voters delivered the coup de grace in 2001 when Labor's Ronan Lee won the seat with a further 3.3 per cent swing. The Liberals recovered 5.8 per cent of the primary vote in a less crowded fielded in 2004, but this only translated into a 0.8 per cent two-party swing.

Ronan Lee (left) has earned a reputation as something of an agitator, recently being heard criticising Peter Beattie for "wavering" over the uranium mining issue. In October last year he was at the forefront of a caucus revolt against means testing and co-payments for surgery at public hospitals. Suzanne Lappeman of the Gold Coast Bulletin reported in February 2005 that Lee had switched from Labor Unity (the "old guard") to the opposing Right sub-faction, the AWU-dominated Labor Forum. His Liberal opponent is transport consultant Peter Turner (right), who won preselection ahead of public relations consultant Scott Emerson. Malcolm Cole of the Courier-Mail reported that this was the result of a factional deal that also delivered the Mount Ommaney preselection to Bob Harper, who lost the seat in 1998.

Conflicting reports emerged early in the campaign regarding Labor's prospects here. In the second week, it was variously reported in the Courier-Mail that Labor was "increasingly confident" of retaining Indooroopilly and Clayfield, and that it was "pessimistic" about them. Ronan Lee's opposition to uranium mining was back in the news in the third week of the campaign after he voiced concern over equivocal statements on the issue from Peter Beattie and Anna Bligh. Appropriately enough, Lee is among the Labor candidates to whom the Greens are recommending a second preference. It was also reported that the Coalition accused Lee of campaigning "almost as an independent" after fielding campaign signs with no ALP branding.

ASSESSMENT: Labor retain