Blair

Suburban Switch?

Marginal Liberal, 5.7% (post-redistribution – previously 11.2%)

Blair is an outer suburban seat on Brisbane’s south-western edge. It’s based on Ipswich and includes such surrounding suburbs as Booval, Riverview, Yamanto and Brassall, stretches up the Warrego Highway corridor westward through Marburg and Laidley to Gatton and Helidon, and takes in semi-rural territory to the south around Boonah and Fassifern.

It also used to be Pauline Hanson territory. Liberal Cameron Thompson was elected as the first MP for Blair in 1998, but had to fight off a bid by Hanson, then the member for the neighbouring electorate of Oxley, for the seat.

The redrawing of electoral boundaries in Queensland took the northern rural and semi-rural areas around Esk, Kilcoy, Nanango and Kingaroy out of Blair and gave it more of central Ipswich, which will help Labor at the poll. Labor’s Shayne Neumann still needs a substantial swing to take the seat, but continued expansion of the suburbs should work to the party’s advantage. Blair will be high on the list of the gains Labor hopes to make in Queensland. It could be vital to giving Labor a firm majority.

Declared Candidates