QUEENSLAND ELECTION 2009

MIRANI Labor 1.2%*
Region: Central Coast Federal division: Capricornia/Dawson/Flynn * Nationals seat made notionally Labor by redistribution
	SCOTT MURPHY Labor (bottom) TED MALONE Liberal National (top) CHRISTINE CARLISLE Greens

Mirani covers 200 kilometres of the central coast from the northern outskirts of Rockhampton to the southern outskirts of Mackay. The redistribution has added 10,000 voters from two geographically and electorally distinct areas from abolished Fitzroy to the south: the Nationals-voting grazing district around Dysart and Middlemount in the interior, and declining mining areas to the west and south of Rockhampton. Labor's strength in the latter area gives them a notional margin of 1.2 per cent in a seat the National/Country Party has held since 1949, by a margin of 6.5 per cent in 2006. Most of the voters carried over from the existing seat are from the sugar-growing areas west and south of Mackay, which are marginal near the coast and Nationals-voting further inland. A further 6500 voters in the area immediately east of Mackay have been transferred to Whitsunday.

Mirani has has had just six members since its creation in 1912, the only Labor member being Ted Walsh (1935 to 1947, later member for Bundaberg). Ted Malone has held the seat since a by-election in 1994, although his margin was cut to 2.7 per cent and 3.8 per cent in 1998 and 2001. Malone was promoted to the front bench after the 1998 election defeat and has covered a number of portfolios since, assuming his current position of emergency services in November 2005. Labor's candidate is Scott Murphy, who lives in Gracemere and works as a fitter in the mining industry.

PREDICTION: LIBERAL NATIONAL NOTIONAL GAIN