The Federal electorate of Brisbane covers an area of approximately 77 sq km from Everton Park and Stafford in the north to the Brisbane River in the east and south and to Ferny Grove and Upper Kedron in the west.
The main
suburbs include Alderley, Ashgrove, Bardon, Bowen Hills, Brisbane City,
Enoggera, Ferny Grove, Fortitude Valley, Grange, Kelvin Grove, Keperra,
Milton, Mitchelton, New Farm, Newmarket, Newstead, Paddington, Red Hill,
Spring Hill, Stafford, Upper Kedron, Wilston and Windsor.
Brisbane is mostly a residential electorate, but contains some light
industry. It incorporates Queensland Parliament House, Brisbane City Council
Chambers, the Enoggera Military Camp, QUT Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove,
along with many Commonwealth Government, State Government and business
administrative offices. The CBD and fringe suburbs are in the final throes
of a property boom, and have undergone substantial development and
experienced population increases.
Brisbane's inner suburbs have drawn an influx of well-moneyed and
conservative professional types from south of the border and the outer
suburbs, as well as large numbers of international students, but the really
big money comes from overseas. The Labor State government has made a
concerted effort to match a discernable increase of likely Liberal voters by
backing the development of a significant number of 'community housing'
complexes over the past few years. The outer areas of the electorate are
well populated with vaguely conservative young "aspirationals" and their
families.
Over recent decades all levels of government have failed to provide proper
infrastructure to keep up with the demands of Brisbane's ever increasing
population. Consequently, although there are pockets of leafy loveliness,
generally the urban landscape has been transformed from a sprawling tropical
town, to an architectural and logistical nightmare. It's noisy, polluted and
crowded. The "pokey out awning" reigns supreme within this poorly planned
wasteland, dotted with soulless shopping centres and badly renovated pubs
where you can't smoke, and get strange looks if you dare ask for "Heavy"
XXXX instead of the more acceptable "Gold."
The electorate is inadequately served by its media as a result of News Ltd's
stranglehold on the news publication market. Vested interests are only
revealed to the citizenry as a result of clashes between the powerful, real
scandals are still invisible, and the city runs on spin and a web of
misinformation and lies. Politically, Brisbane is staid. Global warming,
international affairs, human rights and racial/religious issues do not
factor into the lives of the majority of Brisbane residents, who drive to
every destination (with their green bags), and are ill-informed about wars
being perpetrated in their name.
From a local point of view, Brisbane has a decidedly whiffy underbelly, so
it's convenient for party "heavies" and business leaders that the citizenry
are fed a diet of propaganda, trash and sport rather than comprehensive
coverage of political and commercial affairs. Despite the prevailing
apathy, Brisbane residents are keen participants in News Ltd. sanctioned
cultural and community activities and annual festivals - as long as there's
somewhere for them to park.
Arch Bevis (ALP), or "Arch Bar" as he has been fondly dubbed by
Wilston-Grange establishment types, has been the sitting member for Brisbane
since 1990. Prior to his election, Brisbane was held by Manfred Cross (ALP)
from 1980-1990 and 1961-1975. Cross, who has also served as State Secretary
of the ALP, is well known throughout Brisbane for his service to local
history, indigenous rights and Scouting Queensland. (In 1983, Cross asked
Minister for Home Affairs and the Environment, Barry Cohen, to grant
$400,000 to purchase a portrait of Captain Cook painted by Webber in 1782
for the National Library. Cohen, having held the position of Minister for
only an hour or so, declined. The National Portrait Gallery purchased said
portrait for $5.3 million in 2000.)
Bevis trained as a teacher and was an organiser in the Queensland Teacher's
Union, before becoming Deputy General Secretary (1980 - 1990). He served as
State President for Young Labor (Qld) in 1975 and National President of
Young Labor in 1978. He has held a variety of shadow portfolios including
Industrial Relations from October 1998 to November 2001, and October, 2004
to June 2005, when he was appointed as the Shadow Minister for Homeland
Security, Aviation and Transport Security. In December of 2006, a change to
the front bench has resulted in the addition of Territories to his
portfolio, and following another change in March 2007, Justice and Customs
was added.
Bevis is a reliable presence at community events and citizenship ceremonies,
but he tends to keep his head down, which may explain why Liberal candidate
Dr Ingrid Tall, gave him a run for his money back in 2004. Every month he
distributes his community newsletter, 'The Bevis Report' throughout the
electorate. Not so long ago, this newsletter was incorporated within the
inner city news publication 'The Independent'. Now it goes out with all the
other junkmail. Interestingly, among the "issues" that Bevis considers
important - including defence, education and the economy - is "Journalistic
Pecuniary Interests". Of this he says:
"All politicians must register their Pecuniary Interests, relevant interests
to their particular portfolio and position. Journalists should have to do
the same."
His last speech to parliament - regarding amendments to the Customs Tariff
Amendment Bill (2007) - was made early last month.
Liberal candidate for Brisbane, Ted O'Brien, trained as a baker with
Defiance Mills whilst studying for a Bachelor of Arts at the University of
Queensland. He won an Asia-Pacific Fellowship sponsorship to work in Taiwan
where he completed studies in Chinese Mandarin. In the mid-1990s O'Brien
joined the Australian Ricegrower’s Cooperative as a business developer – a
role that took him to countries across Asia.
He earned two Masters degrees in International Business - where he graduated
with 1st class honours - and in Politics of the World Economy at the London
School of Economics. O'Brien has worked as a business strategist for
Accenture and has an established reputation as a strong advocate through the
Australian Republican Movement (ARM) through his role as former chairman.
O'Brien has close connections to the Minister for the Environment and Water
Resources, Malcolm Turnbull.
Over the past few weeks, O'Brien has been making his presence felt
throughout the electorate. As well as a large "Ted O'Brien" billboard,
which has appeared on Waterworks Road, he'll be presenting a Brisbane
Institute seminar titled: 'Australia in the Asia-Pacific: The Un-sexy
Business of Trade' at Customs House later this month. O'Brien has held
"Listening Posts" and distributed leaflets outlining such issues as
"Cracking down on local crime" and "Delivering better, safer local roads".
Judging from his latest letter, he believes that these and the issue of
"hooning" are election winners. Given that the electorate is mostly
immunised against information about National and International affairs, he
could be choosing his issues wisely (even though they are not even areas of
Federal jurisdiction).
Other candidates for Brisbane include business owner Elizabeth Guthrie
(Greens). Guthrie is married to the Branch Membership Secretary of the Mt
Coot-tha Greens, Wally Guthrie. (In July, the 'Courier-Mail' reported that
Wally Guthrie is a "BP refinery employee", as with all 'Courier-Mail'
reports this should be checked for truth). Born and raised in Adelaide,
Guthrie worked and travelled overseas before moving to Brisbane in 2001.
Don Sinnamon is the Democrats candidate for the seat of Brisbane in the 2007
election. He is the Deputy President of the Qld Democrats and a founding
member of Just Rights Queensland, the Queensland Peace Network and
Queensland Nuclear Free Alliance. Sinnamon is also on the Queensland
Management Committee of the Friends of the ABC.
Of course, it really is the Senate where the near future of Australia will
be determined.
Brisbane based Senators are Senator John Hogg (ALP), Deputy President and
Chair of Committees, Senator Andrew Bartlett (Dem), Deputy Leader of the
Australian Democrats, Senator, The Honourable, George Brandis, Minister for
the Arts (LIB), Senator, The Honourable Ron "Bozzie" Boswell, Leader of the
Nationals in the Senate (NAT), Senator Russell Trood, (LIB), Senator Claire
Moore (ALP) and Senator, The Honourable Brett Mason, Parliamentary Secretary
to the Minister for Health and Aging (LIB).
Queensland Senate candidates are as follows:
Mr Jeff Buchanan (Family First), Sam Watson (Socialist Alliance) and Larissa
Waters (Qld Greens).
The Senate election is worthy of a full post of its own!
|
|
|
Opinion Archive 
