The Division of Blair is an Australian Electoral Division in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

Geography

Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the

Australian Electoral Commission The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent federal agency in charge of organising, conducting and supervising federal Australian elections, by-elections and referendums. Responsibilities The AEC's main responsibility is to ...

. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.

History

The division was created in 1998 and is named after

Harold Blair Harold Blair (13 September 1924 – 21 May 1976) was an Australian tenor and Aboriginal activist. He has been called the "last great Australian tenor of the concert hall era". Early life Blair was born at the Barambah Aboriginal Reserve at ...

, an Aboriginal singer and

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

campaigner. The Division is based on

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

, and extends from rural and exurban areas west of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

to the

Scenic Rim The Scenic Rim is a group of forested mountain ranges of the Great Dividing Range, located south of Brisbane agglomeration, straddling the border between south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales, Australia. In 2021, the S ...

and

Lockyer Valley The Lockyer Valley is an area of rich farmlands that lies to the west of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and east of Toowoomba. The Lockyer Valley is rated among the top ten most fertile farming areas in the world, and the intensively cultiv ...

regions. The founder of One Nation,

Pauline Hanson Pauline Lee Hanson (''née'' Seccombe, formerly Zagorski; born 27 May 1954) is an Australian politician who is the founder and leader of One Nation, a right-wing populist political party. Hanson has represented Queensland in the Australian ...

, contested Blair in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

. Her previous seat,

Oxley Oxley may refer to: Places Australia Australian Capital Territory * Oxley, Australian Capital Territory is a suburb of Canberra, Australia Queensland *Oxley, Queensland is a suburb of Brisbane, Australia ** Oxley railway station, Brisba ...

, had been essentially split in half in the redistribution ahead of the election. Oxley was reconfigured into an exclusively Brisbane-based seat that tilted strongly toward

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

, while most of the rural area near Ipswich shifted to Blair. Although it was a very safe

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

seat on paper, it contained most of Hanson's base, so it was a natural choice for Hanson to attempt to transfer. The Liberals, Nationals and Labor preferenced each other ahead of Hanson, allowing Liberal challenger Cameron Thompson to win on the eighth count. Thompson overtook the Labor candidate on National preferences, then defeated Hanson on Labor preferences. Thompson held the seat without serious difficulty in the next two elections, and it was widely considered as a safe Liberal seat. In the 2006 redistribution, the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

Liberal margin of 11.2% was almost halved to 5.7%. Conservative-leaning Esk,

Nanango Nanango is a rural town and locality in the South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Nanango had a population of 3,599 people. Geography Nanango is situated north-west of the state capital, Brisbane, at the junc ...

and

Kingaroy Kingaroy is a rural town and locality in the South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. The town is situated on the junction of the D'Aguilar and the Bunya Highways, north-west of the state capital Brisbane and south west of Gympie. As a ...

were transferred to Maranoa, while Blair was pushed further into Ipswich and Boonah. Blair had been rated as having received more funding promises from the Howard Government than any other electorate in the country. The redistribution pushed Blair just outside the range of seats Labor needed to win government. In the 2007 election, Thompson was defeated by Labor challenger

Shayne Neumann Shayne Kenneth Neumann (born 26 August 1961) is an Australian politician. He was elected to the Federal seat of Blair in November 2007, and re-elected in 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 and 2022. In March 2013, Shayne was appointed Parliamentary Secreta ...

, with a 10.2 percent swing to Labor. Since then, the growth of Ipswich has allowed Neumann to consolidate his hold on the seat. For instance, in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, he actually picked up a small swing in his favour even as Labor lost government. In

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, Neumann made Blair a safe Labor seat with 58.9 percent of the vote.

Members

Election results

References

External links

- Division of Blair (Qld)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Blair, Division of Electoral divisions of Australia Constituencies established in 1998 1998 establishments in Australia Federal politics in Queensland