Adam Carr's guide to
the 42nd Parliament
of the
Commonwealth of Australia


The House of Representatives

Queensland
Farrer                

Division of Fisher

                Flinders


Hon Peter Slipper
(Lib)

No website
















































Location: North of Brisbane: Caloundra, Kawana, Kilkoy, Mooloolaba
Division named for: Rt Hon Andrew Fisher, Prime Minister of Australia 1908-09, 1910-13, 1914-16
Median weekly family income: $694 (140th highest)
Persons born in non English speaking countries: 4.6% (116th highest)
Persons in professional occupations: 22.1% (110th highest)
Persons aged 65 and over: 17.2% (13th highest)
Couple families with dependent children: 33.2% (128th highest)
Dwellings being purchased: 24.2% (87th highest)
Sitting member: Hon Peter Slipper (Liberal), elected 1984, defeated 1987, elected 1993, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007
Born: 14 February 1950. Career: Barrister and solicitor, businessman and farmer. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance and Administration 1998-04.
1996 two-party majority: Liberal 20.3
Effect of 1998 redistribution: 00.4 shift to Liberal
1998 two-party majority: Liberal 11.0
2001 two-party majority: Liberal 12.1
Effect of 2004 redistribution: 00.3 shift to Labor
2004 two-party majority: Liberal 13.0
Effect of 2006 redistribution: no change
2007 notional two-party majority: Liberal 13.0
2007 two-party majority: Liberal 03.1




2004 enrolment: 85,985
2007 enrolment: 86,767 (+00.9%) (new boundaries)
Fisher was created in 1949, and at that time covered a large rural area north of Brisbane. Successive redistributions cut the seat back to the fast-growing Sunshine Coast area, and most recently to a section of the Coast based on Caloundra and Maroochydore. The 2006 redistribution removes Maroochydore and leaves the seat consisting of Caloundra, Mooloolaba and a stretch of rural hinterland. The seat is now almost entirely composed of beachside tourism and retirement towns, and has the country's third-highest level of people aged over 65. As a result it also has one of the country's lowest levels of median family income, and very low rates of families with dependent children and dwellings being purchased. Fisher was a safe seat for the Country Party and its successor the Nationals until the 1980s, when the Nationals' vote shifted to the Liberals as the area urbanised. Members for Fisher have included Country Party ministers Sir Charles Adermann and his son Evan Adermann. Peter Slipper won the seat as a National in 1984, lost it in 1987, and won it back as a Liberal in 1993. Slipper was a parliamentary secretary 1998-2004. At the time Labor won the seat in 1987 it included the outer Brisbane suburban areas which later became the seat of Dickson: the seat on its new boundaries was considered fairly safe for the Liberals, but a 7.9% swing to Labor in 2007 has once again rendered the seat marginal. In 2007 the Liberals polled 67% of the two-party vote in Minyama, and also topped 60% at Alexandra Headlands, Glenview, Mount Kilcpy, Mount Mee and Pelican Waters. Labor polled 58% at Conondale and 55% at Beerburrum.
 

Two-party vote by booth, 2007 Click to enlarge map

Two-party swing by booth, 2007 Click to enlarge map



















Members for Fisher


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