Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I was talking about the electoral redistribution in the electorate of Dawson, which takes in Mackay. It is currently held by Mr Bidgood, as I said. The Electoral Commission has taken the boundaries of the seat of Dawson, which is principally based on Mackay, Bowen, Eyre and Home Hill, where I live, and extended the electorate into the inner suburbs of Townsville. It now goes into the suburb of Annandale, where, curiously enough, the current member for Herbert, Mr Peter Lindsay, currently lives. So the current member for Herbert, who lives slap bang in the centre of his electorate, now finds himself living in the electorate of Dawson. And wouldn’t you know it? Herbert is a very marginal seat. The suburb of Annandale, where Mr Lindsay lives, was always the best Liberal voting area in the electorate of Herbert. I am not for a moment suggesting that the Electoral Commission took that into account when determining the boundaries—