{"id":150470,"date":"2016-07-03T15:05:46","date_gmt":"2016-07-03T05:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=150470"},"modified":"2020-10-10T15:41:44","modified_gmt":"2020-10-10T05:41:44","slug":"sword-hanging-over-odowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2016\/07\/03\/sword-hanging-over-odowd\/","title":{"rendered":"Sword Hanging Over O’Dowd"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
ALP candidate Zac Beers enjoys a “democracy sausage” on Saturday at a fundraiser for the Boyne Island Tannum Sands junior golf club (Photo: Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ken<\/a>
LNP candidate Ken O’Dowd<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

July 3, 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sitting LNP member Ken O’Dowd looks in real danger of losing his seat of Flynn after Saturday’s Federal Election cliffhanger.<\/p>\n

On Sunday afternoon – with 92 of 96 booths counted – Mr O’Dowd was 824 votes behind ALP candidate Zac Beers on first preference votes.<\/p>\n

But the gap after distribution of preferences was even greater, 2183 votes.<\/p>\n

Postal votes could narrow this margin but most pundits are giving the seat to the ALP.<\/p>\n

southburnett.com.au could not reach Mr O’Dowd for comment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One Nation candidate Phil Baker, described as “a contractor in local laws”, stole votes from both men, securing 16.8 per cent (11,227) first preference votes.<\/p>\n

The electorate of Flynn extends from Gladstone to Emerald and south to Wondai.<\/p>\n

It was created by a redistribution before the 2007 Federal Election.<\/p>\n

Its inaugural Member was Labor’s Chris Trevor, who was turfed out by Mr O’Dowd at the 2010 poll as part of a Queensland-wide swing to the LNP.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>
ALP candidate for Flynn Zac Beers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mr Beers, 25, is an Australian Workers Union organiser and the son of AWU executive member Tony Beers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He told southburnett.com.au<\/strong> he took leave from his union role to contest the poll.<\/p>\n

Mr Beers grew up in Central Queensland and is currently studying a Law and Commerce degree externally.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Sunday afternoon, Mr Beers said the result was still “very, very close”\u00a0 and too narrow to call.<\/p>\n

He said that historically postal votes could favour the incumbent but this was not true in all cases.<\/p>\n

“We were certainly the underdogs coming into the election,” he said. “But early on during the campaign it was obvious that there was a mood for change.”<\/p>\n

Mr Beers said he had been involved with the Labor Party for a long time but had never really thought before about running for a seat.<\/p>\n

“My motivation came about because I was disappointed about what was happening across the region and with the response by the current Member,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Beers said there had been significant job losses, people were hurting, and Mr O’Dowd had not tried hard enough to assist them.<\/p>\n

He attributed the strong vote for One Nation to the general frustration with the political status quo.<\/p>\n

“There was also a large result for (Clive) Palmer at the last election which could have shifted across to One Nation,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said there had been no clear trend with One Nation preferences with them averaging out about 50\/50 between the ALP and LNP.<\/p>\n

Mr Beers lives in Gladstone,\u00a0 is involved with the Tannum Sands Seagulls rugby league club, and is a past captain at Tannum Sands State High School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sitting LNP member Ken O’Dowd looks in real danger of losing his seat of Flynn after Saturday’s Federal Election cliffhanger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":150479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nSword Hanging Over O'Dowd - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sitting LNP member Ken O'Dowd looks in real danger of losing his seat of Flynn after Saturday's Federal Election cliffhanger.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2016\/07\/03\/sword-hanging-over-odowd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sword Hanging Over O'Dowd - southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sitting LNP member Ken O'Dowd looks in real danger of losing his seat of Flynn after Saturday's Federal Election cliffhanger.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2016\/07\/03\/sword-hanging-over-odowd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-03T05:05:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-10T05:41:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/20160702beers.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"385\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2016\/07\/03\/sword-hanging-over-odowd\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2016\/07\/03\/sword-hanging-over-odowd\/\",\"name\":\"Sword Hanging Over O'Dowd - 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