July 3, 2016
Candidates David Littleproud (Maranoa) and Llew O’Brien (Wide Bay) have taken the LNP baton cleanly from predecessors Bruce Scott and Warren Truss but both men are shying away from claiming victory … yet.
The seats, two of the three Federal electorates that cross the South Burnett, are safe LNP strongholds but they both suffered swings in Saturday’s poll.
* * *
In Maranoa, Mr Littleproud easily led the voting count on Sunday afternoon.
He secured 31,705 first preference votes; his nearest competitors were Dave Kerrigan (ALP) with 13,012 primary votes, and Lynette Keehn (One Nation) with 12,242 primary votes.
On a two-candidate preferred basis, Mr Littleproud was leading 43,150 votes to Mr Kerrigan’s 22,593.
The LNP vote shrunk by almost 10 per cent on primary votes and 6.65 per cent on a two-candidate basis.
The ALP gain on primary votes was 3.18 per cent, on a par with the national swing of almost 3 per cent.
However, the big winner in Maranoa was Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. Candidate Lyn Keehn – who campaigned on an anti-halal and anti-foreign investment platform – secured more than 18 per cent of primary votes.
Mr Littleproud admitted he was in a “pretty strong position” but wasn’t prepared to claim victory. He said he was just humbled the people of Maranoa had put their trust in him.
When the seat was declared – and if confirmed elected – he plans to “hit the ground running”.
* * *
In Wide Bay, Mr O’Brien was equally cautious about claiming victory, saying only that “things are looking quite good”.
By Sunday afternoon, Mr O’Brien had secured 32,345 primary votes. The nearest candidates were Lucy Stanton (ALP) with 17,491 and Elise Anne Cottam (One Nation) with 11,080.
On a two-candidate preferred basis, Mr O’Brien had 42,432 votes, ahead of Ms Stanton with 31,417.
Mr O’Brien cautioned that there were still outstanding votes to be counted.
The swing to Labor on primary votes was just under 3 per cent, and against the LNP by just over 5 per cent.
On a two-party basis, this translated to a swing to Labor of 5.7 per cent.
However, One Nation again had a major impact on polling with Ms Cottam picking up nearly 15 per cent of the primary vote.
Mr O’Brien thanked his wife Sharon and his campaign team for the hard work they had put in during the campaign.
“I am really, really honoured by the result so far,” he said.
- Related article: Sword Hangs Over O’Dowd
