Boost for Dutton as 18 seats redistributed in Queensland

A shake-up of Queensland’s electoral boundaries will affect 18 seats and should help Peter Dutton hold his marginal seat.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.

A redistribution of electoral boundaries in Queensland will affect 18 of the state’s 30 federal seats, and the changes are expected to help Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton hold his marginal seat of Dickson.

The shake-up may also weaken independent MP Bob Katter’s grasp on his rural stronghold of Kennedy, which he has held since 1993. That division is set to take in more constituents from Bentley Park and Edmonton, now in the north Queensland seat of Leichhardt and held by the LNP’s Warren Entsch.

Under the overhaul, announced on Friday, all 30 federal electorates will retain their existing names. Rejected proposals included renaming the seat of Wide Bay as “Bjelke-Petersen”, in honour of former premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, and naming another seat “Irwin” after the late TV personality and conser­vationist Steve Irwin.

The Electoral Commission accepted modest boundary changes initially proposed in September. Eleven of the state’s divisions were forecast to fall outside the acceptable population range by September 2021.

Labor strategists told The Weekend Australian thatthe redistribution would leave eight LNP seats on a margin of less than 5 per cent.

Mr Dutton, whom some colleagues view as a potential future Liberal leader, has held Dickson since 2001, but Cheryl Kernot won it for Labor in 1998.

Parts of Bridgeman Downs, Ferny Hills and McDowall will be transferred to Dickson, which Mr Dutton holds on a margin of 1.6 per cent. In the Bridgeman Downs booth, which is being transferred from the seat of Lilley, held by former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan, the LNP polled 60.91 per cent of the primary vote to Labor’s 27 per cent at the 2016 double-dissolution election. In the McDowall booth, the LNP received a primary vote of 52.3 per cent against Mr Swan’s 33 per cent.