Liberal National Party incumbent Llew O’Brien was returned to the seat of Wide Bay at last Saturday’s Federal Election with almost 63 per cent of the votes, an increase of 4.5 per cent on his 58 per cent win in 2016 under the two-party perferred system. There was a 4.5 per cent swing against Labor this election with candidate Jason Scanes gaining about 37 per cent of the vote.
Mr O’Brien thanked his supporters, saying “the people of Wide Bay have sent Canberra a clear message that they don’t want higher taxes”. “They reject Labor’s lies about health and education funding,” he said. “They trust the Liberal and National Parties to keep our economy strong and our borders secure.”
Mr O’Brien is now looking to deliver on election funding promises on a range of infrastructure, economic, community service, and sports projects that were locked into the 2019 Federal Budget.
In Noosa those projects include upgrades to the Tewantin-Noosa Cricket Club and Noosa Tigers AFL and an extension to Sunshine Butterflies.
He said with the return of the Morrison Government he expected his election commitments including a new maintenance shed for Noosa Dolphins to be fulfilled and looked forward to the delivery of the Cooroy to Curra Section D project, the Coondoo Creek Bridge connecting the Cooloola Coast to Gympie and new safety improvements, flood mitigation projects and overtaking lanes that are planned along the Bruce Highway through Wide Bay.
“It’s now time for the Queensland Government step up and get moving on these projects,” he said.
According to the Australian Electoral Commission’s first preference count O’Brien gained more than 36,000 of Wide Bay’s 81,000 voters increasing his margin by almost 3 per cent while Scanes gained almost 17,500 votes, a swing against Labor of less than 1 per cent. The Greens’ Daniel Bryar and One Nation’s Aaron Vico were neck and neck for third placing with Bryar gaining 9.7 per cent of the vote and Vico winning 10.7 per cent which was a swing toward the Greens of 1.5 per cent and a swing away from One Nation of almost 5 per cent.
Of the three remaining candidates the Independent Tim Jerome came out on top with 4.45 per cent of the vote, beating the United Australia Party candidate Andrew Schebella with 3.5 per cent and Fraser Anning’s Conservative National Party candidate Jasmine Smith who won 2 per cent of the count.LNP gained the majority of votes across all Noosa Shire polling booths although there was a mix of increases and decreases since last election. At Noosa Heads and Noosaville it was almost a tie between the Greens and Labor with each picking up about 22 per cent of the vote. Cooran voters placed the Greens (26%) just ahead of Labor (24%) with LNP only edging them out with 29 per cent.
