Logan’s Labor heartland under siege

LABOR will retain its heartland in Logan, but its powerbase will diminish into Opposition after the LNP’s state government victory at the weekend.
All eight seats touching Logan’s borders will likely be retained by sitting MPs, although two seats remained on a knife’s edge Monday.
Both Macalister and Springwood will likely finish among the state’s 10 most marginal seats, although Melissa McMahon (Macalister) and Mick de Brenni (Springwood) are expected to hold on as the count is finalised this week.
In both seats, there are still about 3000 postal votes to be counted. More than 70% of those would have to be directed to the LNP for an upset to evolve.
Despite their party’s heavy loss, neither Woodridge MP and former state treasurer Cameron Dick or Waterford MP and former health minister Shannon Fentiman have yet thrown their hand up to lead the party.
Mr Dick said Monday he wouldn’t contest a leadership ballot.
“Steven ran a good campaign, and he’s earned the right to continue,” he said.
But he did warn a Labor stronghold could be a bad thing for Logan.
“As happened previously, we can expect the incoming Crisafulli LNP government to ignore the people of Logan,” he said.
“Labor members of parliament have fought hard and have delivered for the people of Logan over the past 10 years.
“I felt greatly honoured that after a tough election campaign, the people of Woodridge and Logan more broadly have trusted Labor once again to represent them in Queensland parliament.”
Despite holding their seats, there were some strong swings to the LNP, notably in Logan’s growth corridor, Algester (10%) and Logan (9.5%), where crime and public transport were strong issues.
A swing of more than 10% to LNP’s Rob van Manen in Macalister, which is predominantly the Beenleigh area, was deceptive.
In 2020, well-known independent Margaret Keech polled more than 3000 votes which seem to have drifted to the LNP.
The swing against Ms McMahon was 3.6% which made her the best-performing Labor politician in the region.
“It’s going to have to be my fight for the next four years to make sure that the Crisafulli government actually delivers what we need here in Beenleigh,” she said.
“Then I have to make sure that the projects that I have spent a lot of time getting on the map continue to be delivered and are not haltered or cut – things like the City Road intersection upgrade, the new police station, the new ambulance station, the new primary school.”
LNP also made less than average gains in Waterford where local councillor Jacob Heremaia was taking on Ms Fentiman.
In a column written exclusively for MyCity Logan (see Page 8), mayor Jon Raven said he wanted to work closely with the new government.
“One of the core promises from a Crisafulli government was to provide a $2 billion dedicated infrastructure fund for new housing developments to get Queenslanders into houses sooner,” Cr Raven said.
“When LGAQ’s police executive met with Ann Leahy last week, she indicated $1 billion of that would be reserved for SEQ.
“My question was, what is everyone else going to get? Because Logan could use that entire billion dollars.”
Cr Raven said the LNP had promised $7 million to upgrade the Mount Lindesay Highway from Jimboomba to Beaudesert, $5.6 million to upgrade Cornubia Park Sport Precinct, and $2 million for anti-hooning cameras.
Ms McMahon said a poor turnout at the polls was an issue.
“Currently I would estimate about a quarter of the electorate did not even vote,” she said.
“That tells me there’s a huge chunk of the electorate that’s either disengaged, didn’t feel the need for a change, or a range of reasons.
“MPs across the state have to work on making themselves and what they do relevant to people – that is a task for everyone of every persuasion and party.
“It is really hard to say democracy is functioning when a quarter of the population don’t bother to turn up.”