Queensland state election 2024: Hervey Bay, Maryborough votes

The Fraser Coast’s two Labor-held electorates are tipped for different results today. Follow our coverage including early exit polls and tonight’s numbers as they come in.

Maryborough MP Bruce Saunders and Hervey Bay LNP candidate David Lee are the frontrunners to take out the key Fraser Coast seats.

The stage is set for the Fraser Coast to be split between the two major parties with the LNP’s David Lee on the path to victory in Hervey Bay and Maryborough’s Labor MP Bruce Saunders tipped to be among the few red regional faces to keep his seat.

Team Lee has had to lead the LNP’s reset after an 11 per cent swing to Labor in 2020, the largest in the state, in the wake of a double whammy for the LNP – the retirement of four-term MP Ted Sorensen and support from an over 55s dominated population for the then Palaszczuk Government’s Covid response.

However, early indications are that the seat is likely to return to its blue status in line with state momentum and amid widespread frustration over the first-term MP’s perceived lack of presence in the public space prior to the election campaign.

Leader of the Opposition David Crisafulli and David Lee, LNP candidate for Hervey Bay, visit Aqua Vue cafe, Hervey Bay. Picture: Liam Kidston

Tantari, who had previously, notoriously dodged media requests and made few announcements in four years, did recently attend a tightly controlled candidate’s forum where he insisted he’d been working “methodically” to ensure the people of Hervey Bay benefited from lower unemployment rates and a strong economic recovery, pointing to major construction at the hospital, schools, roads and investment in more doctors, nurses and police along with new business grants.

Premier Steven Miles visits Urangan Pier in Hervey Bay with Adrian Tantari MP for Hervey Bay. Pics Adam Head

Lee, a lawyer who already has a public profile thanks to his former role as a Fraser Coast councillor, has seized on the Tantari “phantom” hype with his campaign motto “visible, vocal, active” along with relentless social media clips pointing out that while many Bay sites are surrounded by Queensland Government branded construction fencing, no work has actually started (even this week, the only sign of activity on the Main St block earmarked for a new fire station was a fresh mow).

The vacant lot where Labor has pledged to build a new fire station on the corner of Doolong Rd and Main St in Hervey Bay. It’s been plugged as a Labor win but construction has yet to begin.

Sentiment towards the Hervey Bay MP however largely remains in stark contrast to that in the neighbouring Maryborough electorate where incumbent MP Saunders is still the favourite ahead of the LNP’s John Barounis,

While Saunders’ electorate technically takes in the outskirts of Hervey Bay and seaside towns to the west including Dundowran Beach, Craignish and Burrum Heads, his focus and largest fan base remains south of Susan River where he has been seen as the spearhead for the revival of Maryborough’s manufacturing industry.

Maryborough MP Bruce Saunders with Premier Steven Miles at Downer on the election trail with Shannon Fentiman. Photo: Adam Head

Since the former ice-cream shop owner with strong union ties (the biggest bugbear with local conservatives) won the seat in 2015 he has earned a bullish reputation for advocacy in line with his “putting the Maryborough electorate first” mantra which Labor insiders say has often been at the expense of popularity within his own party.

Prior to his three-term stint, the LNP briefly held Maryborough via Newman-era MP Anne Madden who succeeded three-term Independent MP Chris Foley, but the closest call Saunders had was from One Nation (which once had a sitting MP in Maryborough during the early Pauline Hanson years) in 2017 when former Fraser Coast councillor and Bauple dairy farmer James Hansen drew 30.36 per cent of the vote compared to Saunders’ 45.18 per cent.

Leader of the Opposition David Crisafulli and John Barounis, LNP candidate for Maryborough talking with victim of crime Belinda Earle, Earles Paint Place, Maryborough. Picture: Liam Kidston

His biggest test though is yet to come as, in the absence of an upset (he improved with 53.3 per cent of the vote in 2020 ahead of Fraser Coast councillor Denis Chapman for the LNP with 26.3 per cent) he will face his first term in opposition

Rolling results will be available here on Saturday evening and in the Courier Mail’s live election blog.

In the meantime, voters still to cast their ballot can do so at the following booths.