QUEENSLAND ELECTION 2009

GLASS HOUSE Liberal 0.1%*
Region: Sunshine Coast Hinterland Federal divisions: Fisher/Fairfax/Longman * Labor seat made notionally Liberal by redistribution Outgoing Member: Carolyn Male (Labor)
	JENNIFER HANSEN READ Labor (bottom) ANDREW POWELL Liberal National (top) JENNY FITZGIBBON Greens

Glass House is named for the mountain range about 90 kilometres north of Brisbane which dominates it. The electorate was recreated at the 2001 election after previously existing between 1986 and 1992. It was won by the Nationals in 1986 and Labor in 1989, and had a notional Nationals margin of 4.3 per cent going into the 2001 election. Labor's Carolyn Male won on that occasion with a 13.9 per cent swing and suffered only minor corrections in 2004 and 2006. The electorate has been fundamentally altered by the redistribution, which has transferred Labor-voting areas of Caboolture to Pumicestone in the south and Landsborough to Caloundra in the east, each costing it about 7000 voters. Compensating gains have come from conservative-voting areas in the north and west: from Eudlo west to Obi Obi from Nicklin, and Cedarton south through Woodford to Mount Mee from Nanango. The changes have eliminated Labor's 7.7 per cent margin, prompting Carolyn Male to jump ship for the new seat of Pine Rivers. Male originally sought nomination for the new seat of Morayfield, and it appeared she would have to stand and fight in Glass House in the likely event that she proved unable to defeat rival aspirant Mark Ryan. The impasse was resolved when Linda Lavarch, whose seat of Kurwongbah had effectively been replaced by Pine Rivers, decided not to contest the election.

The Liberal National Party candidate is Andrew Powell, who has variously worked for the Department of Defence in Canberra, the Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Department of Child Safety. According to the Sunshine Coast Daily, Labor's Jennifer Hansen Read is “president of the Montville Village Association and works part-time as rehearsals manager for the Australian Youth Choir and National Dance Theatre on the Coast”.

PREDICTION: Liberal National notional retain