Federal Election 2016: Federal Seat of Fairfax Profile (In Order of the Ballot paper)
Fairfax (*)
Northern Sunshine Coast
Safe LNP 11.7%
(*) - The party status of this electorate has been changed due to the retirement of the sitting MP. See below for details.
MP
The retiring MP is Clive Palmer who narrowly won this seat for the Palmer United Party in 2013.
Profile
Fairfax is a northern Sunshine Coast seat that covers most of the former Maroochy Shire with the notable exception of Alexandra Headland and Mooloolaba in the south. Along the coast the district includes Maroochydore, Pacific Paradise, Bli Bli, Mount Coolum and Coolum Beach, plus Kuluin, Buderim, Eumundi, Yandina, Palmwoods, Mapleton and the major hinterland centre of Nambour. Covers 1,036 square kilometres.
Background
Fairfax was one of the Queensland electorates created on the expansion of the House of Representatives in 1984. It is named after Ruth Beatrice Fairfax, founder and first President of the Country Women's Association. It was won at its first contest in 1984 by the National Party's Evan Adermann, who had been representing the local area as member for Fisher since 1972.
Adermann retired at the 1990 election, and Fairfax became the opportunity for former Treasury Head and then National Party Senator John Stone to try and move to the House of Representatives. However, 1990 was to prove a bad election for the Queensland National Party in the wake of the state National government's demise in December 1989. Fairfax was safe conservative territory, but Stone could not outpoll another economist in Liberal candidate Alex Somlyay.
In 2004 the Labor candidate for Fairfax provided an unexpected diversion to the election campaign. Dr Ivan Molloy was a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Studies at Sunshine Coast University. During the campaign an old picture of Molloy cradling a gun while visiting Philippine separatists raised headlines over a Labor candidate supporting terrorists. The incident might have attracted less national attention were it not for Labor Leader Mark Latham confusing Molloy's name with that of convicted serial killer Ivan Milat at a press conference.
Alex Somlyay represented Fairfax for 23 years before retiring at the 2013 election. He would have been succeeded by new LNP candidate Ted O'Brien, but the seat was instead won by Clive Palmer for his Palmer United Party, his victory only confirmed after a tortuous re-count at which Palmer's scrutineers engaged in a war of attrition by challenging tens of thousands of ballot papers. Palmer had polled only 26.5% to O'Brien's 41.3%, his eventual victory margin on Labor and Green preferences being only 53 votes.
With Clive Palmer having announced his retirement, Fairfax reverts to being a safe LNP seat.
Candidates:
Sue Etheridge (Greens)
National & State Links:
Greens Party Federal Website, Greens Party Federal Wikipedia Entry, Greens Party Federal Facebook,
Greens Party Queensland Website, Greens Party Queensland Wikipedia Entry, Greens Party Queensland Facebook,
Candidate Profile:
55 year-old Etheridge was born in Tara, Queensland, growing up on a sheep farm. She commenced her career at Toowoomba branch of the Commonwealth Bank, a company with which she stayed for the next 23 years. In 2012 she was appointed to the Management Committee of the Sunshine Coast Environment Council. She is currently a co-owner and accounts manager of a small business.
David Rees (Family First Party)
Keith Alexander Campbell (Independent)
National & State Links:
.
Candidate Profile:
54 year old grew up locally and now lives locally with his wife and family. He is a former Design Draftsman with a local consulting engineer for 25 years and currently works as a meter reader. He is involved at different levels with numerous local sporting clubs, and he points out that his mother's family were among Woombye's early settlers in the 1870's.
Scott Anderson (Labor)
National & State Links:
Australia Labor Party Website, Australian Labor Party Wikipedia Entry,Australian Labor Party Facebook ,
Queensland Labor Party Website, Queensland Labor Party Wikipedia Entry, Queensland Labor Party Facebook,
Queensland Labor Party Twitter,
Candidate Profile:
28 year-old Anderson is an IT client support officer. He moved to the Sunshine Coast as a child, lives in Nambour and currently works in Brisbane.
Ted O'Brien (Liberal National Party)
National and State Links:
Liberal Party of Australia Website, Liberal Party of Australia Wikipedia Entry,
Liberal Party of Australia Facebook site , LNP Website, LNP Twitter account, LNP Facebook , LNP Wikipedia Entry,
Candidate Profile:
Educated at Nudgee College where he was School Captain, O'Brien later trained as a baker with Defiance Mills while working his way through university. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland, and earned an Asia-Pacific Fellowship to work in Taiwan where he completed studies in Mandarin. He returned to Australia in the mid-1990s and joined the Australian Rice Growers' Cooperative as a business developer, a role that took him to countries across Asia. O'Brien has completed two Masters degrees, in International Business (1st class honours) and in Politics of the World Economy at the London School of Economics. O'Brien spent four years working as a business strategist for Accenture, a global consulting, technology and outsourcing company, before being promoted to their niche Market Maker team in 2005, a role that has given him responsibility for negotiating complex business deals across the Asia-Pacific region. O'Brien was the Liberal candidate for Brisbane at the 2007 Federal election and for Fairfax in 2013, where he lost by 53 votes.
Kris Bullen (Online Direct Democracy)
National & State Links:
Candidate Profile:
Bullen grew up in the small country town of Coominya and moved to the Sunshine Coast as a child. He completed schooling at Coolum Primary and then Coolum High and moved on to complete a Bachelor of Science majoring in Public Health at the University of the Sunshine Coast. He also completed tertiary study in psychology at QUT. His professional career includes work as a Queensland Police constable, a small business owner in Marcoola, an executive officer for TAFE Queensland, and a legislative compliance officer for a private national registered training organisation.
Robert Dickson (Independent)
Robert Pasquali (Pauline Hanson's One Nation)
National & State Links:
Candidate Profile:
Pauline Hanson's One Nation party has endorsed Robert Pasquali, for the Queensland seat of Fairfax. The party through Robert wish to build on the underlying sentiment of the Fairfax electorate and present a servant party that people can be confident that will work for the electorate and be trusted to deliver. Pasquali has held senior management positions within blue chip companies and worked as a Management Consultant with ahigh profile international change management bodies. Most recently he has worked as an Employment Consultant in the Caloundra and Maroochydore areas. Pasquali has a Bachelor in Business (Marketing) and a Master of Business Administration from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Graduate School of Business.
Candidate Profile on Party Website
The Federal Division of Fairfax is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland. The division was created in 1984 and is named after Ruth Fairfax, founder of the Country Women's Association. It is located in the Sunshine Coast region north of Brisbane and includes the towns of Coolum, Maroochydore, Buderim, Nambour, Montville, Kenilworth and Eumundi. It has always been held by a centre-right party.
In the 2013 election, Clive Palmer, leader of the Palmer United Party, contested and, after the distribution of preferences from all the minor parties and the ALP, very narrowly won the seat by 36 votes over the Liberal National candidate at the first count. This was reduced to 7 votes after a recount of the distribution of preferences. Since the result was determined by less than 100 votes, the Australian Electoral Commission conducted another full recount which Clive Palmer won by 27 votes.
| Created | 1984 |
|---|---|
| MP | Clive Palmer |
| Party | Palmer United |
| Namesake | Ruth Fairfax |
| Electors | 95,467 (2013) |
| Area | 1,036 km2 (400.0 sq mi) |
| Demographic | Rural |
Members who have represented this seat in the House Of representatives
Evan Aldermann (National) 1984-1990
Alex Somlyay (Liberal then Liberal-National) 1990-2013
Clive Palmer (Palmer United) 2013-Present (Retiring)
| Australian federal election, 2013: Fairfax | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Liberal National | Ted O'Brien | 34,959 | 41.32 | −8.13 | |
| Palmer United | Clive Palmer | 22,409 | 26.49 | +26.49 | |
| Labor | Elaine Hughes | 15,429 | 18.24 | −9.07 | |
| Greens | David Knobel | 7,046 | 8.33 | −9.67 | |
| Katter's Australian | Ray Sawyer | 1,623 | 1.92 | +1.92 | |
| Family First | Angela Meyer | 1,416 | 1.67 | −3.57 | |
| Independent | Trudy Byrnes | 1,016 | 1.20 | +1.20 | |
| One Nation | Mike Holt | 709 | 0.84 | +0.84 | |
| Total formal votes | 84,607 | 94.88 | −0.09 | ||
| Informal votes | 4,569 | 5.12 | +0.09 | ||
| Turnout | 89,176 | 93.41 | +0.63 | ||
| Two-party-preferred result | |||||
| Liberal National | Ted O'Brien | 52,184 | 61.68 | +4.73 | |
| Labor | Elaine Hughes | 32,423 | 38.32 | −4.73 | |
| Two-candidate-preferred result | |||||
| Palmer United | Clive Palmer | 42,330 | 50.03 | +50.03 | |
| Liberal National | Ted O'Brien | 42,277 | 49.97 | −7.03 | |
| Palmer United gain from Liberal National | Swing | N/A | |||
Australian Electoral Commission Information
- State/Territory:
- Queensland
- Status:
- Current, boundary gazetted 15 December 2009
- AEC Divisional Office:
- Divisional Office contact details
- Maps & GIS data:
- A4 map of the Division of Fairfax (2009) [PDF 550KB]
Map of the Division of Fairfax (2009) [PDF 1.8MB]
Download GIS data - Name derivation:
- Named after Ruth Fairfax 1878–1948, a founder of the Country Women's Association and its first Queensland president.
- Area and Location Description:
- Fairfax covers an area of approximately 1 036 sq km in the central part of the Sunshine Coast Regional Council area. The division extends from Peregian Springs and Eumundi in the north, to Maroochydore, Mountain Creek and Palmwoods in the south to Kenilworth in the west. The main towns include Buderim, Coolum Beach, Eumundi, Kenilworth, Mapleton, Maroochydore, Montville, Nambour, Palmwoods, Peregian Springs, Woombye and Yandina.
- Products/industries of the area:
- Avocados, ginger, sugar cane, fruit juice, tropical and exotic fruits, dairy and beef cattle, tourism, construction and infrastructure industries.
- First proclaimed/election:
- 1984
- Demographic rating:
- Rural
- Members:
- Palmer, C (PUP) 2013–
Somlyay, A (LNQ) 1990–2013
Adermann, A E (NP) 1984–1990 - Current member details:
- Please refer to the Parliament of Australia website
- Further information:
- 2013 federal election – House of Representatives results for Fairfax
2010 federal election – House of Representatives results for Fairfax
2007 federal election – House of Representatives results for Fairfax
2004 federal election – House of Representatives results for Fairfax
2013 divisional profile
For supporting information, see Party codes, demographic ratings and seat status.