QUEENSLAND ELECTION 2009

MOUNT ISA Labor 8.3%
Region: Western Outback Federal divisions: Kennedy/Flynn/Maranoa
	BETTY KIERNAN Labor (top) PAUL COSTIN Greens KEITH DOUGLAS Independent TED RANDALL Liberal National (bottom) ROY COLLINS Independent

Mount Isa was created as an electorate in 1972, before which the town was variously in the Labor electorates of Burke and Carpentaria. Only after the election of Tony McGrady in 1989 did the seat become safe for Labor, which had previously won it only in 1972 and 1983. The seat previously changed hands from Labor to Nationals in 1974, Nationals to Labor in 1983, and Labor to Liberal in 1986. The redistribution has expanded the electorate to cover the entire length of the state's border with the Northern Territory, increasing its area from 367,305 to 570,502 square kilometres. In keeping with the ongoing trend of regional decline, the electorate was 18 per cent below quota going into the redistribution, and was thus forced to expand into neighbouring Nationals-voting outback and rural areas. However, the extent of the required gain was limited by the “large district allowance” that preserves an element of rural weighting in large regional electorates, resulting in an enrolment of 19,373 voters compared with a statewide quota of 29,560. Nonetheless, the Nationals' strength in the newly acquired areas to the east (Hughenden and Richmond, previously in abolished Charters Towers) and south (the largely empty area along the southern part of the Northern Territory border, previously in Gregory) has been enough to cut the Labor margin from 12.3 per cent to 8.5 per cent. The city of Mount Isa's weight has been reduced from around 59 per cent of enrolment to 53 per cent.

Betty Kiernan previously worked as electorate officer to Tony McGrady, succeeding him as member on his retirement at the 2006 election. Liberal National Party candidate Ted Randall is a former Mount Isa City councillor.

A week into the campaign, Michael McKenna of The Australian reported that a motion from Labor's Mount Isa regional conference has warned of a local backlash if the government persists in its refusal to allow uranium mining. Betty Kiernan said she was “aware of the motion and supported uranium mining in principle”. Lawrence Springborg subsequently used the occasion of a visit to the electorate to argue that uranium mining would create “thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in royalties which can be invested in hospitals”.

Independent candidate Keith Douglas Jr has won the endorsement of federal Kennedy independent Bob Katter. Katter's efforts to promote a grouping of independents running on sugar industry issues in 2004 met with little success.

PREDICTION: Labor retain