QUEENSLAND ELECTION 2009

SPRINGWOOD Labor 5.7%
Region: Logan City Federal divisions: Rankin/Forde
	ALLAN de BRENNI Independent DAVE BEARD Liberal National (bottom) KIM LIMBURG Independent BARBARA STONE Labor (top) NEIL COTTER Greens LESLEY ALEXANDRA NOAH Independent

The western boundary of Springwood stretches for 12 kilometres along the Pacific Motorway in Brisbane's south-east, from which it extends eastwards to the Logan City suburbs of Rochedale, Springwood, Shailer Park and Logandale. The redistribution has added 3500 voters in Rochedale at the northern end, previously in Mansfield, along with a small area of Cornubia from Redlands in the south. The seat was won by the Nationals on its creation in 1986, and has since changed hands to Labor in 1989, Liberal in 1995 and back to Labor in 1998. It is best remembered for the 19.5 per cent swing that dumped Labor's Molly Robson at the 1995 election, when both Greens and Democrats directed preferences to Liberal candidate Luke Woolmer in protest against a motorway route it was feared would harm koala populations. Grant Musgrove recovered the seat for Labor in 1998, but was forced to stand aside in 2001 after the Shepherdson inquiry revealed his preselection was secured with help from vote rorting.

It was a measure of the Shepherdson inquiry's electoral non-impact that Labor's replacement, Barbara Stone, enjoyed an easy victory from a 10.1 per cent two-party swing assisted by competing Nationals and Liberal candidates. Also in the field was anti-child abuse crusader Hetty Johnston, who polled 20.9 per cent as an independent. Despite having been held by the Liberals as recently in 1998, it was the Nationals who won the right to contest the seat in the coalition deal ahead of the 2004 election, and they achieved an unimpressive 0.7 per cent two-party swing despite their monopoly of the conservative vote. The Liberals narrowed the two-party margin by 4.5 per cent when given a free rein in 2006, without seriously endangering Labor's hold.

Barbara Stone was one of a number of factionally unaligned candidates installed by Peter Beattie in late 2000 without a preselection vote as part of his highly effective management of the vote rorting scandal, but she has since become associated with the Labor Unity faction. Stone spent most of her working life with Australia Post before taking on a job as an electorate officer in 2001, and has not enjoyed substantial promotion in her time in parliament. The Liberal National Party initially nominated Darren Power, who sought Nationals endorsement in 2006 and until recently represented a local ward on Logan City Council. Power announced his withdrawal in January, citing “job and financial” concerns resulting from the financial crisis. His replacement is Dave Beard, described as a “small businessman who runs his own horticultural and property maintenance business”. Beard ran against Power at the local government elections last March, but polled poorly.

PREDICTION: LIBERAL NATIONAL GAIN