Knuth talks of quitting Changes wipe his seat off map

DALRYMPLE MP Shane Knuth has not ruled out retiring from politics after the state electoral boundaries redistribution wiped his seat off the map.

The redistribution released yesterday unveiled the redrawn electoral districts, with a three- week appeal process to follow.

Rob Katter’s already- huge electorate of Mount Isa has been expanded and been renamed Traegar.

The Burdekin electorate has retained its name despite a proposal to change it to McMaster and Palm Island has been kept in Scott Stewart’s seat of Townsville.

Mr Knuth said while he felt like he had more to give in politics, he wasn’t ruling out retiring.

“I will be making that decision in the next two to three weeks,” he said.

“It’s very disappointing after 13 and a half years as the member for the region of Charters Towers and Moranbah. People can accept being voted out but not redistributed out.”

Mr Knuth said the size of Traegar would make it impossible to cover.

“It’s going to be almost impossible to get that proper representation,” he said.

“The reality is that the electoral commission took the advice from the major parties to abolish my seat and yet four extra seats have been created and put down in Brisbane.”

Townsville MP Scott Stewart said he was pleased that Palm Island remained in his electorate.

“It’s a good outcome for the Palm community,” he said. “It didn’t make sense that someone would have to travel to Townsville and then find their way up to Ingham to go and speak with the local member.”

Mayor Alf Lacey said he was also relieved.

“It was a no- brainer – the submission that we had put up and supporting submissions were that our connectivity will always be with Townsville,” he said.

Burdekin MP Dale Last said residents hadn’t wanted their electorate to change names.

“We’re very proud of our area and we were very keen to retain that name,” he said.

Hinchinbrook MP Andrew Cripps said while common sense had prevailed for the people of Palm Island, he was disappointed he had lost areas such as Tully.

“They ( Palm Island) will be relieved that their direct communications and transport links have not been interrupted in terms of their state representation,” he said.

“But I would be less than honest if I didn’t say that I was extremely disappointed that communities around the northern end of my electorate have not been included ( in Hinchinbrook).”