Surfers Paradise MP John-Paul Langbroek doesn’t take local support for granted

SURFERS Paradise MP John-Paul Langbroek holds one of the state’s safest seats but said he doesn’t take local support for granted.

Minister for Education, John-Paul Langbroek MP, at the official opening the newly renovated TAFE Queensland Gold Coast at Southport. Picture: JERAD WILLIAMS

SURFERS Paradise MP John-Paul Langbroek holds one of the state’s safest seats but said he doesn’t take local support for granted.

The Education Minister is a virtual certainty to be re-elected for a fifth term in parliament at Saturday’s election but despite his swing-proof majority the LNP MP will spend the week in the community.

“I never take this seat for granted and I have worked consistently on issues which I think locals are passionate about,” he said.

MP for Surfers Paradise, John-Paul Langbroek

“The final week is going to be intense and I will be working in the electorate as well as travelling interstate, but at nights I will burn the midnight oil to deal with local issues. The life of a politician is not glamorous when you are working in your office at midnight but, at the end of the day, it’s all about the electorate.”

Mr Langbroek has held Surfers Paradise since 2004 and was returned in 2012 with the state’s second-largest margin of about 29 per cent.

Bookies have strongly backed him over Labor challenger Josh Blundell-Thornton, with Sportsbet paying out $1.03 on an LNP victory to the ALP’s $21.

Mr Blundell-Thornton said he would continue doorknocking the electorate until election day in an attempt to become the first Labor candidate to win the seat in its history.

The seat of Surfers Paradise was created in 1972 and has almost exclusively been held by the conservatives, including the period in which it was held by one-term premier Rob Borbidge. Former mayor Lex Bell held it as an independent from 2001-04 after Mr Borbidge’s post-election resignation.