QUEENSLAND ELECTION 2009

CLEVELAND Labor 1.3%
Region: Redlands Shire Federal division: Bowman
	PHIL WEIGHTMAN Labor (top) RICHARD JEMISON DS4SEQ CARISSA PATCHETT Greens MARK ROBINSON Liberal National (bottom)

Cleveland is a coastal electorate in Brisbane's south-eastern suburbs, extending from Birkdale through Wellington Point and Cleveland to Thornlands and across the bay to Stradbroke Island. The redistribution has detached the northern coastal area west to Tingalpa Creek to Capalaba and added Thornlands in the south from Redlands, increasing the Labor margin from 0.5 per cent to 1.3 per cent. The electorate was created at the one-vote one-value redistribution that took effect at the 1992 election, at which it was won for Labor by Darryl Briskey, who had previously been the member for Redlands. Labor's closest shave here came in 1995, when the backlash against the Goss government cut the margin to 2.5 per cent. Briskey retired at the 2006 election and was succeeded by Phil Weightman, a local police officer, who narrowly escaped defeat after an 8.1 per cent swing. The Liberal National Party candidate is Mark Robinson, a 45-year-old father of seven and reverend at the Bible College of Queensland.

Greg Roberts of The Australian reported in early February that internal Liberal National Party polling had them 5 per cent behind in Cleveland, amid a generally grim picture for the party in Brisbane marginals.

One day out from the election, Steven Wardill of the Courier-Mail reported Labor sources believed the recent oil spill had cost the party “crucial support” in this and other coastal metropolitan seats. Sarah Elks of The Australian earlier reported the recreational fishing lobby was hoping to stir a backlash against the government's expansion of Moreton Bay Marine Park “green zones”, which came into effect a week into the campaign.

PREDICTION: LIBERAL NATIONAL GAIN