Scramble to find a new seat

NEGOTIATIONS are continuing to find Palaszczuk Government Minister Steven Miles a seat to contest at the next election as both major parties continue to assess the impact of the biggest electorate shake up in Queensland in almost three decades.

Labor is understood to be considering several seats north

The Katter’s Australian Party MP did not take news of his seat’s dissolution well.

“Once again, rural and regional Queenslanders have fallen prey to the actions of the big powers in the big cities,” he said on Facebook.

Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter accused the major parties of “fandangling” the redistribution to break up KAP. LNP Member for Hinchinbrook Andrew Cripps was also concerned.

“My initial reactions to some of the proposed changes by the Redistribution Commission are that they are impractical, such as the excision of a large area of the Cassowary Coast region,” he said.

“This does not appear to take account of the long association and similar economic, industry and community links between the Cassowary Coast Region and the Herbert River district.”

Independent Cook MP Billy Gordon was happy to keep Mareeba, where his electorate office is based, but his hopes the expansive Cook electorate would be split into two proved fruitless. of Brisbane for Dr Miles including the newly named and redrafted Kurwongbah or D’Aguilar after his Mt Coottha seat was merged with the LNP-held Indooroopilly to become the new seat of Maiwar.

Dr Miles said he would be consulting with his family.

“Clearly my job is far from done,” Dr Miles said yesterday.

Both parties were cautious yesterday not to claim any sort of victory as they continued to crunch the numbers.

ABC election analyst Antony Green said he believed the redistribution would notionally give Labor the edge at 48 seats to the LNP’s 43, if the 2015 election had been carried out on the 93 new seats.