THE POLL BLUDGER
Queensland Legislative Assembly Election 2006

REDCLIFFE
Labor 7.1%/Liberal 1.2%

Redcliffe, which occupies most of the peninsula 25 kilometres north of the CBD that bears its name, was one of two Labor seats which fell to the Liberals at by-elections on 20 August 2005, the other being Chatsworth. The vacancy in Redcliffe was caused by the retirement of Ray Hollis, who had been Speaker since the Beattie government came to power in 1998. Hollis cited ill health as the reason for his retirement, though he had recently been cleared by the Director of Public Prosecutions over hospitality expense rorts. The Liberals gained the seat with a 1.2 per cent margin following a two-party swing of 8.3 per cent, with Labor down from 50.1 per cent to 39.6 per cent on the primary vote and Liberal up from 35.6 per cent to 41.2 per cent.

The electorate was created in 1960 and held for its first 19 years by Jim Houghton, first as a Liberal and later with the National/Country Party. The Liberals did not take his defection lying down, and the electorate became a battleground between the two parties throughout the 1970s. Only with Houghton's mid-term retirement in 1979 did the Liberals recover it, the ensuing by-election being won by Terry White. White became the Liberal leader in August 1983 a week after being the only cabinet minister out of eight Liberal members who crossed the floor to vote for a debate on establishing a public accounts committee. At the election held the following October, five of the eight floor-crossers (and another who had contentiously failed to vote) lost their seats and the Liberals' numbers were reduced from 20 to eight. This was cut by a further two when Don Lane and Brian Austin defected to the National Party to give it a majority in its own right. White stood aside as leader and eventually lost his seat to Ray Hollis in 1989, and now lends his name to a national chain of pharmacies. Hollis survived on uncomfortable margins in 1995 and 1998 before picking up 13.7 per cent at the 2001 landslide, but was almost brought back to earth in 2004 when Liberal candidate Terry Rogers (left) picked up a 10.5 per cent swing.

Rogers was rewarded for his performance with an uncontested preselection when the by-election was called, and his subsequent win helped boost the Liberals' numbers from five to seven. He ran a locally based chartered accountancy firm before entering parliament, and has recently been promoted from parliamentary health secretary to Shadow Public Works and Housing Minister. Labor is again running with defeated by-election candidate Lillian van Litsenburg (right) , a school teacher and Redcliffe councillor who won preselection ahead of council colleague Peter Houston.

ASSESSMENT: LABOR GAIN