Labor’s $5b failure exposed as community gives party the boot

Labor’s defeat of the blue collar Maryborough seat will prompt lengthy soul-searching within the party, which worked for nine years to turn the seat from a marginal to safe one.

Steven Miles’s Labor lost its 'safe' seat of Maryborough to David Crisafulli’s LNP.

Labor splashed $5bn in Maryborough and questionably paid its local member $281,000 to oversee train manufacturing – but it wasn’t enough to save the blue collar electorate from a shock loss to the LNP.

The defeat of Assistant Minister for Train Manufacturing Bruce Saunders at the hands of the LNP’s John Barounis on Saturday will prompt lengthy soul-searching within Labor, which worked for nine years to turn the seat from a marginal to safe one.

Bruce Saunders. Picture: Liam Kidston

Maryborough was the biggest election loss for Labor, with Mr Saunders’s 11.9 per cent margin overcome with a 13.3 per cent swing to the LNP’s Mr Barounis.

It was the safest Labor seat to fall, however the retirement of Curtis Pitt in Mulgrave has the LNP on-track to overcome a 12.2 per cent margin to win there.

During the election campaign the LNP was optimistic it would perform strongly in Maryborough, but played down any suggestion it would win.

“We can’t tell everyone about it because then they’ll (Labor) allocate resources and start sandbagging,” one LNP source said.

The LNP’s John Barounis.

During the campaign Mr Saunders – who could not be reached for comment on Tuesday – was confident he’d be able to defend the 11.9 per cent two-party margin.

Adding to his optimism was the eye-watering amount of cash and attention pumped into the city by Labor since 2015.

In June 2023 the Palaszczuk government awarded Downer a $4.6bn contract to build a new state-owned manufacturing facility in the electorate and deliver 65 passenger trains.

The huge cash injection was the culmination of an eight-year tale of revenge against the LNP for sending manufacturing to the brink of collapse during its reign over Maryborough.

The Newman LNP government awarded a $4.4bn contract to build and maintain 75 Next Generation Rollingstock trains to Bombardier, which were plagued with problems after being built in India.

Mr Saunders’s 2015 victory – on a platform of returning manufacturing to the city – pushed Annastacia Palaszczuk over the line to form minority government with 44 seats.

In reward, Labor announced a $70m pipeline of works for Downer EDI’s Maryborough workshop and, two years later, a $319m contract to rectify disability issues in the LNP’s Indian-built trains.

Stunningly, one year later, after extending his margin in Maryborough to 11.9 per cent at the state election, Ms Palaszczuk named Mr Saunders Assistant Minister for Train Manufacturing and Regional Roads – earning him an extra $93,000.

The defeat of Mr Saunders caps an end for one of Labor’s agitators – who spent the first three weeks of a colourful nine-year political career working in his Maryborough gelato store, Scoops.

In 2015, a delay in counting the tight contest forced Mr Saunders to balance serving desserts in one hand with speaking to Ms Palaszczuk on a mobile phone in the other.