Psephos - Adam Carr's Election Archive

Adam Carr's Election Archive

Australian federal election, 2019
Division of Fisher, Queensland

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Sunshine Coast: Caloundra, Currimundi, Landsborough, Mooloolaba, Sippy Downs
State seats: All of Caloundra and Kawana, parts of Buderim, Glass House, Maroochydore and Nicklin
Local government areas: Parts of Sunshine Coast
Enrolment at close of rolls: 113,134
1999 republic referendum: No 61.5
2018 same-sex marriage survey: Yes 62.8

Sitting member: Andrew Wallace (Liberal): Elected 2016

2007 Liberal majority over Labor: 3.1%
2010 Liberal majority over Labor: 4.1%
2013 Liberal majority over Labor: 9.8%
2016 Liberal majority over Labor: 9.2%
2019 notional Liberal majority over Labor: 9.2%

Status: Fairly safe Liberal

  • 2016 results
  • Statistics and history

  • Candidates in ballot-paper order:

    1. Trevor Gray
    United Australia Party
    2. Daniel Parsell
    Australian Labor Party
    3. Tracy Burton
    Australian Greens
    4. Christopher Paterson
    Pauline Hanson's One Nation
    5. Andrew Wallace
    Liberal Party
    6. Mike Jessop
    Fraser Anning's Conservative
    National Party
    7. Paul Monaghan
    Love Australia or Leave



    Candidate websites:

    Tracy Burton
    Chris Paterson
    Andrew Wallace

    Division of Fisher

    Fisher was created in 1949, and at that time covered all the rural areas 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 removed Maroochydore and left the seat consisting of Caloundra, Mooloolaba and a stretch of rural hinterland around Landsborough. The seat is now almost entirely composed of beachside tourism and retirement towns, and has one of the country's highest level of people aged over 65. As a result it also has a low level of median family income, and 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 have included Country Party ministers Sir Charles Adermann and his son Evan Adermann. Labor won it in 1987 and 1990, when it included the outer Brisbane suburban areas which later became the seat of Dickson. It is now a reasonably safe Liberal seat.

    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 in the Howard Government, but returned to the backbench in 2004, where he stayed until the Gillard minority Labor Government offered him the post of Deputy Speaker in 2010 as a gambit to improve their position in the House. In 2011 Speaker Harry Jenkins resigned and Slipper was elected Speaker with Labor support.

    Slipper was then expelled from the Liberal Party and accusations soon emerged that he had sexually harassed a (male) staff member and abused his travel entitlements. Most of these charges were eventually disproved, but Slipper was forced to resign in October 2012 after he was shown to have sent offensive text messages. He contested Fisher as an independent in 2013. He polled 1.6%, the lowest vote ever polled by a sitting member of the House.

    His Liberal successor was Mal Brough, who had been Liberal MP for Longman from 1996 to 2007 and a minister in the last term of the Howard Government. He was appointed to the ministry by Malcolm Turnbull in 2015. But continued accusations that he was the source of the false allegations against Slipper led to his resignation in February 2016, and he retired under a cloud in 2016.

    Andrew Wallace, Liberal MP for Fisher since 2016, is a barrister. The Labor candidate in 2019 will be Daniel Parsell, an electrician. The Greens candidate is Tracy Burton, a Caloundra teacher. The One Nation candidate is Chris Paterson, a construction worker.

    Demographics:

    Median weekly household income: $1,247 (Australia $1,438)
    People over 65: 21.6% (Australia 15.8%)
    Australian born: 74.2% (Australia 66.7%)
    Non-English-speaking households: 6.8% (Australia 22.2%)
    Catholics 18.7% (Australia 22.6%)
    No religion 32.6% (Australia 29.6%)
    University graduates: 15.7% (Australia 22.0%)
    Professional and managerial employment: 29.7% (Australia 35.2%)
    Employed in manufacturing and construction: 28.7% (Australia 22.9%)
    Employed in agriculture: 2.7% (Australia 3.3%)
    Paying a mortgage: 31.4% (Australia 34.5%)
    Renting: 29.9% (Australia 30.9%)
    Traditional families: 28.3% (Australia 32.8%)

    Members:

    Rt Hon Sir Charles Adermann (CP) 1949-72
    Hon Evan Adermann (CP, NCP, NPA) 1972-84
    Peter Slipper (NPA) 1984-87
    Michael Lavarch (ALP) 1987-93
    Hon Peter Slipper (Lib, Ind) 1993-2013
    Hon Mal Brough (Lib) 2013-16
    Andrew Wallace (Lib) 2016-

    Boundaries following 2018 redistribution:




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