Queensland election 2017 results: A tale of two states

NORTH Queensland voters have turned their back on Labor, with voters above the Tropic of Capricorn venting their anger at a party many believe has become fixated on the southeast.

NORTH Queensland voters turned their back on the Labor Party yesterday as voters above the Tropic of Capricorn vented their anger at a party that many believe has become fixated on the southeast.

As votes were counted in the north last night, the ALP’s Aaron Harper in Thuringowa, in Townsville’s west, and Coralee O’Rourke in Mundingburra were struggling to hold the line, while to the south, the Burdekin looked like falling to One Nation.

That party’s candidate in Thuringowa, Mark Thornton, could yet benefit from preferences from the KAP’s Terry Fox in the seat won by One Nation’s Ken Turner nearly 20 years ago.

In Townsville, ALP incumbent Scott Stewart was receiving strong support and expected to hold the line, but all three seats were still undecided in early counting last night.

Labor Member for Mundingburra, Coralee O'Rourke sits outside the Labor Party gathering waiting for the Live Cross to ABC

In Mundingburra – taking in Townsville’s central suburbs such as Cranbrook and Aitkenvale, and the sprawling James Cook University precinct – One Nation’s Malcolm Charlwood was inching ahead of ALP incumbent Coralee O’Rourke, while the LNP’s youthful Matthew Derlagen was also still in play.

Ms O’Rourke said she knew she would have a tough fight.

“When the redistribution came in, I knew we would have difficulty,” she said.

“But we ran a good campaign, which I was happy with, and now we just have to wait and see.”

To the south of the city, the ALP’s Mike Brunker was polling strongly in Burdekin in a seat centred on the sugar towns of Ayr and Home Hill and stretching southwest to the mining towns behind Mackay.

But Burdekin remained a close contest between the LNP’s Dale Last, Mr Brunker and One Nation’s Sam Cox, who said last night it might take days to decide.

Many Burdekin sugar growers, furious at electricity prices that are costing many upwards of $40,000 a year to pump irrigation water, turned their back on both parties.

But many traditional Labor voters in the mining hinterland behind Mackay, which also falls into the Burdekin electorate, also appear to have backed One Nation.

Mr Brunker, the former Bowen mayor, has a high profile in the north.

Mr Cox, a cane farmer from a well-known Burdekin sugar-growing family, said it had been a tough fight, but he was confident of taking the seat for One Nation after what was expected to be a long count.

“I always said it would go to the wire,’’ Mr Cox said.

“The Burdekin was probably one of the more likely seats for One Nation to win.

“But the redistribution did work slightly in Labor’s favour.”

Mr Cox said counting in the Burdekin could continue for days.

Southward, Labor’s Julieanne Gilbert was holding Mackay, while the party’s Jim Pearce looked set to win the adjoining seat of Mirani.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who campaigned heavily in the north, did not reap the support predicted, but remained upbeat last night.

“The people want change, they are fed up with political parties,’’ Senator Hanson said.

“People have never given up on me, they have said, ‘you are the only one to say what we are thinking’.’’

The savage rejection of Labor in the north follows a wave of “regionalism’’ in that part of the state as voters give vent to anger about electricity prices, water shortages, and the perceived fixation by both parties on the southeast.

In the Burdekin, many sugar growers, furious at electricity prices, which are costing many upwards of $40,000 a year to pump irrigation water, turned their back on both parties.

But many traditional Labor voters in the mining hinterland behind Mackay also appear to have backed One Nation.