Veteran Stuckey vows to fight on
VETERAN Gold Coast MP Jann Stuckey has a target on her potlitical career.
From Labor and within her own party.
The LNP MP beat rising Labor candidate Georgi Leader on Saturday night to defend her Currumbin seat and claim a sixth term in parliament. As of last night, her margin had been eroded to 2.5 per cent or about 1000 votes.
She received around 2000 more votes in the 2015 election.
LNP party strategists and commentators said Ms Stuckey would be under enormous pressure to retire before the 2020 election because the electorate would be aggressively targeted by Labor.
“A 2.5 per cent vote is eminently winnable and Currumbin will definitely be on Labor’s radar at the next election,” Griffith University political analyst Dr Paul Williams said.
“Indeed this may also put pressure on the older members to retire to allow for an injection of new blood.”
An LNP strategist said: “Jann and other long-time members are going to be under a lot of pressure now to consider their futures in the current parliamentary term.
“There’s going to be a serious look at the performance of the local members in seats as well as at the campaign we ran.”
However, Ms Stuckey, 65, said she already was planning to defend her seat in 2020 because she was passionate about her community.
“I am grateful to the people of Currumbin for recognising I love serving this community,” the former Commonwealth Games Minister said.
“Currumbin to me has always been a marginal seat and I never stop campaigning at the election – I will keep going towards the next one because there are always community issues to deal with.
“This one was tougher than the past two (State elections) but I fought for five years to win this seat the first time so I will keep fighting for it – you can never take it for granted.”
Ms Stuckey, who won the seat as a Liberal in 2004 from Labor incumbent Merri Rose, said she was left shaken on election day after her car windscreen was found smashed after stopping at a polling booth at Tallebudgera. Ms Stuckey reported the incident to police and said she did not know who did it.