THE POLL BLUDGER
Queensland Legislative Assembly Election 2006

KAWANA
Labor 1.5%

Kawana covers the Sunshine Coast north of Caloundra and south of Maroochydore and inland to the area around Buderim, where the Liberal vote is roughly 10 per cent higher than elsewhere. It replaced the abolished electorate of Mooloolah at the 2001 election when the town of that name was transferred to Nicklin. Of the many disasters suffered by the Liberal Party at that election, sitting member Bruce Laming's defeat here from a notional margin of 16.1 per cent was possibly the worst. Equally depressing for the Liberals was their failure to recover it in 2004, when Labor was able to limit the two-party correction to 1.1 per cent.

Labor's unlikely winner, Chris Cummins (left), came to parliament in 2001 without factional alignment, before joining Labor Unity (the "Right") in 2002. Cummins was promoted to Emergency Services Minister after the 2004 election on the insistence of Peter Beattie, who demanded that the Sunshine Coast be represented in cabinet. This happened against the wishes of Labor Unity powerbrokers who wanted the position to go to Nudgee MP Neil Roberts. Sean Parnell of the Courier-Mail wrote at the time that Cummins was "the most hated man in caucus": "Backbenchers and ministers alike are furious that Cummins has been promoted without having proven himself in lesser roles, served more than a term in politics, or been a factional player". Cummins survived opposition calls for his resignation in March 2005 after he used ministerial letterhead to ask Maroochy Shire Council that he and others attending a graduation ceremony be excused from paying parking fines. In July 2005 he was bumped sideways to the position of Small Business, Information Technology and Multicultural Affairs Minister.

The Liberal Party's candidate is Maroochy Shire councillor Steve Dickson (right). The Sunshine Coast Daily reported on August 10 that Dickson had made a claim against the council for injuries he sustained after slipping on wet tiles, which the paper reported was "believed to be valued at $60,000".

Among Labor’s bonanza of health promises in the first week of the campaign was a new $940 million 650-bed hospital for Kawana on the Sunshine Coast, scheduled to open in 2014. It had earlier been decided that the hospital would be located at nearby Sippy Downs, but this was withdrawn following allegations the then-Health Minister, Gordon Nuttall, had favoured a developer with links to the Labor Party, which are the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Crime and Misconduct Commission. Dennis Atkins of the Courier-Mail reported in the second week of the campaign that a "Labor insider" said the Sunshine Coast loomed as a "wipe-out", noting that "deep antagonism to the Mary River dam" was damaging Labor in the region.

ASSESSMENT: LIBERAL GAIN