Jason Hunt an overnight successes after years of work

New ALP member for Caloundra Jason Hunt says he’d be highly surprised if his new workplace had any similarities to his old, high-security Woodford Prison.

Prison guard turned successful Labor candidate for Caloundra in the Queensland parliament, Jason Hunt. Picture Lyndon Mechielsen

Jason Hunt, the new ALP member for Caloundra in the Queensland parliament, says he would be highly surprised if there were any similarities between his new workplace and his previous workplace of 21 years, the high-security Woodford Prison.

“I’d hope it would be pretty different,” the former prison guard laughs. “I’d be very alarmed if there were any similarities.”

For Hunt, like several other newly elected candidates, his triumph at this poll has been several elections in the making. When he first stood for the seat in 2015, it was held by the LNP with a margin of more than 20 per cent; he progressively whittled that down to get a 5.6 per cent swing to hold it by about a 2 per cent margin.

Caloundra, on the southern end of the Sunshine Coast, has seen significant growth in the past few years, with 10 families a week moving into a new estate on the southern end of the coastal city.

Hunt said there was no one area of the electorate where there was a marked swing “but I’ve got out and talked to people. There’s no substitute for door-knocking. I’ve worn out two pairs of shoes and the ones I’ve got on now are pretty dodgy.”

He’s not the only new MP with prison experience — the ALP’s new member for Thuringowa in Townsville, Les Walker, worked at Townsville Correctional Centre for five years and at Cleveland Youth Detention Centre in Townsville for 18 years. He has also had 16 years’ experience on the Townsville City Council and was pre-selected only in mid-­September when Coralee ­O’Rourke decided not to contest the election on health grounds.

Another new ALP member, Jonty Bush, who succeeded Kate Jones in Cooper in Brisbane’s west, also has a highly unusual background for a politician.

Twenty years ago, when she was 21, her sister was murdered by an obsessive ex-boyfriend, leaving behind a young child. A few months later, when her father took the child for a visit to his biological father, a fight ensued, her father went into a coma and died.

She became a surrogate mother to her sister’s child and her then 13-year-old younger brother. The experience led her to join the Queensland Homicide Victim Support Group, later becoming its chief executive. She was Young Australian of the Year in 2009.

Another two newly elected Labor MPs, Jimmy Sullivan and Ali King, have more conventional ALP backgrounds as staffers in the current government.

On the other side, Amanda Camm, the new member for Whitsunday, has a huge advantage of name recognition, as the main bridge over the Pioneer River in Mackay is the Ron Camm Bridge, her great uncle and deputy to Joh Bjelke-­Petersen in the 1960s and 70s.