Most marginal seat also least engaged: promises from Forde and Rankin as poll looms

The promises have started to flow in this Queensland electorate, which has one of the slimmest margins in the country. It’s home to the least engaged voters, but there’s one sector of the community that could make the difference.

ELECTION promises have started to emerge from Logan’s two federal seats of Forde and Rankin.

In the bellwether seat of Forde, held by the LNP’s Bert van Manen with a 0.6 per cent margin, promises include funding to alleviate congestion on the M1 and to fix black spots on the Mt Lindsay Highway.

Bert Van Man voting at Chisholm Catholic College in 2016 with wife Judi. Pic Annette Dew

Mr van Manen, who will go head to head with former opponent, radiographer Labor’s Des Hardman, said he was not deterred by the slim margin.

“The seat has always been a marginal seat and I have won three elections since 2010 with small majorities,” he said.

Other promises listed by Mr van Manen included reducing the cost of living and power prices; tax relief for small business and job creation for youth.

Forde is expected to generate interest in the lead up to the election because of the margin and despite it topping the country’s list of least politically engaged electorates.

According to a national Roy Morgan poll of 104,745 people during the 2016 election, Forde voters were the least engaged in the country with only 7 per cent interested in politics.

Beenleigh Housing and Development Company president Peter Eather said he believed the indigenous vote would seal the fate of the electorate.

Mr Eather, a former union official and member of the Labor Party, said there were about 5500 indigenous voters in Forde, representing about 2.5 per cent of voting population.

“Of that 2.5 per cent, I believe Bert van Manen holds about 1.5 per cent of the aboriginal vote which is all he needs to retain the seat,” he said.

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders traditionally vote for Labor but the Liberal Party has helped them in their bid to set up a community hub on 77 hectares of land near Yarrabilba.

“That is a social housing project which Bert has taken a special interest in.”

ALP candidate for Forde Des Hardman is a radiographer at Logan Hospital.

Labor candidate for Forde, Mr Hardman, a radiographer at Logan Hospital, said he wanted to rectify funding cuts to Medicare and a “$6 million cut to the Logan Hospital”.

“I will be spending the months leading up to the election, fighting for better health services for our area.”

Federal Labor candidate for Forde Des Hardman, with Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Federal Shadow Finance Minister Jim Chalmers on a visit to Logan Hospital.

Logan’s other federal seat, Rankin, is held by the Shadow Finance Minister ALP’s Jim Chalmers with a margin of 11.3 per cent.

The electorate covers Rochedale South to Priestdale in the north to Daisy Hill and Meadowbrook in the Southeast.

The federal seat of Rankin is held by Shadow Finance Minister Jim Chalmers.

Mr Chalmers pledged $25.8 million for local schools; restoring funding to the Logan Hospital; a move to 50 per cent renewables by 2030; and waiving fees for 100,000 TAFE students nationally as top priorities for Rankin.

He also said a $1.75 billion commitment to two years of preschool education for every local child would be honoured.

Rankin MP Jim Chalmers, second from right, pledges to help fund local schools.

Mr Chalmers justified the Labor Party’s plan to axe franking credit refunds for those who don’t earn an income.

He said the concession had grown rapidly since introduced in 2000 and cost the budget $6 billion a year.

“The current franking credit system allows mainly high-wealth individuals to pay no tax and receive cash refunds from the Tax Office,” he said.

“Currently, shareholders can use imputation credits to reduce their taxable income to zero, and then use leftover credits to claim a cash refund for tax they haven’t paid in the first place.

“Labor’s changes will go back to the system which still allows shareholders to use imputation credits to reduce their tax liability to zero, but not to claim a cash refund on top of that.

“Clearly we can’t afford to continue this.

“Australia is the only country that lets this happen.

“Pensioners, and other Australians who receive a regular social security payment such as disability support, will still get cash refunds.

“More than 90 per cent of taxpayers do not receive a cash refund, and won’t be affected at all by the change.”

Parliamentary Budget Office analysis showed 86 per cent of shares are owned by the wealthiest 20 per cent of households.

The change would return the system to how it was before 2000.