Currumbin by-election 2020: State seat’s famous MPs Trevor Coomber, Merri Rose and Jann Stuckey

The battle for Currumbin has begun after Jann Stuckey’s sudden resignation. But it’s not the first time the southern Gold Coast seat has seen electoral fireworks.

THE battle for the state seat of Currumbin has begun.

The shock resignation of long-serving MP Jann Stuckey has proved to be a major political bombshell for the LNP which has been forced to rapidly select a candidate.

Laura Gerber will represent the conservatives as they fight to retain the marginal seat after Ms Stuckey’s retirement nine months earlier than expected.

Laura Gerber is the new Currumbin candidate. Picture: Adam Head

The outgoing MP this week used her first interview since the announcement to dump on her colleagues and take a shot at her successor.

Ms Stuckey revealed her party’s alleged culture of bullying and lack of support for her.

It is not the first time that the seat has proven to be highly colourful at election time.

The seat of Currumbin was created in 1986 and claimed by Nationals candidate Leo Gately.

But three years later, at the very end of the Bjelke-Petersen/Ahern/Cooper Government, anti-Nationals sentiment and the revelations of the Fitzgerald Inquiry propelled Labor to power and a new MP in Currumbin.

Gold Coast councillor Trevor Coomber was elected as the new Liberal Party MP and took the seat in December 1989.

Trevor Coomber (Far right) was elected as the member for Currumbin in 1989. Supplied photo.

But life in Opposition for the first time since the 1950s was tough on the conservative Liberal and National parties and tensions continued, even after Russell Cooper was replaced as Opposition leader by Gold Coast MP Rob Borbidge.

Shortly before the 1992 election, in a move which mystifies political figures today, Mr Coomber abandoned Currumbin to take on Mr Borbidge in Surfers Paradise, a highly safe Nationals seat.

Trevor Coomber. Photographer Malcolm North.

Labor abandoned plans to contest that seat and threw all its resources behind its Currumbin candidate, Merri Rose, who would claim victory.

Labor held Currumbin for 12 years and Ms Rose was the party’s sole Coast MP for much of that time, even during the brief Borbidge Government which lasted from 1996 to 1998.

After Labor came to power again in 1998 under Peter Beattie, Ms Rose played an increasingly larger role before being elevated to Cabinet as tourism minister after the party’s landslide 2001 re-election.

Jann Stuckey and Merri Rose during the 2004 election.

But Ms Rose’s political career came undone after accusations she had bullied her staff and a scandal around allowing her son to borrow her ministerial car.

In one instance he took it to Sydney to attend a rugby league game. Ms Rose repaid the bill on the fuel card.

Facing the loss of Currumbin, Mr Beattie sacked Ms Rose from Cabinet and announced plans to move ahead with the Tugun Bypass, just days out from the 2004 election.

Jann Stuckey with husband Richard and daughter Olivia on election night 2004. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

Ms Stuckey, the Liberal Party candidate, won the seat with a 17 per cent swing.

Ms Rose was jailed for three months in 2007 for attempting to blackmail Mr Beattie to secure a job.

While Currumbin has remained in conservative hands for more than 16 years, it has increasingly become marginal, though Ms Stuckey retained a strong personal vote. Time will tell how the 2020 battle of Currumbin will play out.