Canning                 |
Division of Capricornia |                 Casey |
Kirsten Livermore (ALP) Her ALP website | Location: Central Qld: Clermont, Moranbah, Mount Morgan, Rockhampton, Yeppoon Division named for: The Capricornia region, from the Tropic of Capricorn which passes through the district Median weekly family income: $844 (102nd highest) Persons born in non English speaking countries: 2.7% (141st highest) Persons in professional occupations: 21.5% (114th highest) Persons aged 65 and over: 12.0% (99th highest) Couple families with dependent children: 39.1% (63rd highest) Dwellings being purchased: 22.9% (95th highest) Sitting member: Kirsten Livermore (Labor), elected 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007 Born: 10 November 1969, Mackay, Queensland. Career: Union organiser, Community and Public Sector Union, solicitor. Member, Opposition Shadow Ministry since 2001. Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Minister for Environment and Heritage 2001-03, Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Minister for Sustainability and the Environment and Parliamentary Secretary (Heritage) to the Shadow Minister for Heritage and the Territories 2003, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Employment, Education and Training 2003-04, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Education 2004-07. 1996 two-party majority: National 03.6 Effect of 1998 redistribution: 00.1 shift to Labor 1998 two-party majority: Labor 05.3 2001 two-party majority: Labor 06.9 Effect of 2004 redistribution: 01.2 shift to National 2004 two-party majority: Labor 05.1 Effect of 2006 redistribution: 01.3 shift to National 2007 notional two-party majority: Labor 03.8 2007 two-party majority: Labor 12.7 2004 enrolment: 91,027 2007 enrolment: 92,707 (+01.8%) (new boundaries) Capricornia has existed since Federation, ansd has always been based on the provincial port of Rockhampton, although its boundaries have fluctuated greatly at successive redistributions. It has usually been a Labor seat, though since the 1940s an increasingly unreliable one. The seat has rather higher median income levels than most rural seats, but has the usual rural characteristics of low levels of people in professional occupations and of people born in non English speaking countries. While many provincial cities have turned against Labor in recent years, Rockhampton is still overwhelmingly Labor, and Labor also retains support in the mining towns outside Rockhampton such Mount Morgan and Collinsville. The Liberals and Nationals dominate the surrounding rural areas. Capricornia's most distinguished member has been Frank Forde, Labor's Deputy Leader 1935-46 and briefly Prime Minister in 1945. Labor's Kirsten Livermore has held the seat since 1998. She was a shadow parliamentary secretary in opposition but was not given a frontbench position in the Rudd government. Livermore has established herself in the seat in the face of adverse swings in Queensland in 2001 and 2004, and now seems reasonably secure, although the removal of Labor-voting territory by the 2006 redistribution weakened her position slightly. At the 2007 election she received an 8.9% swing. Labor polled 82% of the two-party vote at Collinsville, 80% at Depot Hill in Rockhampton, and more than 75% at Baree, Dysart, Moranbah and Mount Morgan. The Liberals polled 67% at Marlborough, 65% at Yaaamba and 62% at Eton North and Gargett. |   |
Two-party vote by booth, 2007
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