Queensland State Election 2012: Springwood
Electorate: Springwood
Margin: Labor 4.1%
Region: Logan City
Federal: Rankin/Forde
Click here for Electoral Commission of Queensland map
The candidates
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JOHN GRANT
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Electorate analysis: The western boundary of this electorate stretches for 12 kilometres along the Pacific Motorway in Brisbane’s south-east, from which it extends eastwards to the Logan City suburbs of Rochedale, Springwood, Shailer Park and Logandale. It was won by the Nationals on its creation in 1986, and has since changed hands to Labor in 1989, Liberal in 1995 and back to Labor in 1998. It is best remembered for the 19.5 per cent swing that dumped Labor’s Molly Robson at the 1995 election, when both the Greens and Democrats directed preferences to Liberal candidate Luke Woolmer in protest against a motorway route it was feared would harm koala populations. Grant Musgrove recovered the seat for Labor in 1998, but was forced to stand aside in 2001 after the Shepherdson inquiry revealed his preselection had been secured with help from vote rorting.
It was a measure of the Shepherdson inquiry’s electoral non-impact that Labor’s replacement, Barbara Stone, enjoyed an easy victory from a 10.1 per cent two-party swing assisted by competing Nationals and Liberal candidates. Despite having been held by the Liberals as recently in