Forde country’s marginal race a game of inches
gear it. The potential impact in our city should not be underestimated.”
Mr Watt said Labor’s changes were reviewed by independent experts who found it “wouldn’t have a significant impact on house prices”. THE Labor challenger for a marginal Gold Coast seat seen as crucial in the looming Federal election says it will be critical to Bill Shorten becoming Prime Minister.
The battle is well under way in the Gold Coast’s most marginal seat touted as one of 11 electorates set to decide the election.
Forde, situated in the region’s north on the M1, was earlier this month named as one of the bellwether seats for the major parties by demographer Bernard Salt with a slim margin of just 0.6 per cent.
Two-time Labor candidate for the area Des Hardman said the electorate was vital for an ALP election win.
“Forde is really important to us if we want to win government, we will have to win Forde,” he said.
“I was preselected at Easter last year and have been campaigning since then so we have put a huge amount of effort in already.
“Winning is not only important to Labor, it is important to me because I care about this community.”
The Logan Hospital radiographer said he was not going to be distracted by any independents who may surface having faced seven in the field in 2016.
“What we are hearing is people are sick of instability and cuts from the Coalition and they want an experienced stable government who cares about hospitals and the M1.”
LNP incumbent Bert van Manen, who has held Forde since 2010, said he was taking nothing for granted but was “quietly confident” having battled in similar races previously.
“This is business as usual, being in a marginal seat is normal so I won’t be treating this election any different,” Mr Van Manen said.
“I am quietly confident we can hold the seat but we have to work hard to secure it in the next couple of weeks.
“We have had some really good announcements over the last few weeks and have some more coming.”
The shifting political landscape or a political brawl is not new for Mr Van Manen who took on former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie in 2013, managing to increase his margin by 2.8 per cent at the time.
“The reality is there is a very clear difference between a Coalition government looking to lower taxes and provide record investment in services, and an opposition who is proposing to add $200 billion in taxes to the economy.”
Mr Van Manen said he was not at all irked by the confidence of his rivals.
“Whoever you are you have to be confident you are going to win, I have wished him (Des Hardman) all the best, but he is not going to win,” he said.
United Australia Party candidate Paul Creighton, who has described Clive Palmer as “Australia’s best boss”, hopes to serve as the alternative to those tired of major parties.
“Politics is broken in this country so I decided to run to help families and people hurting,” he said.
For the Upper Coomera father of two the major issue is cost of living and transport.
“If you want to drive in the area you need to leave a day earlier. We need to plan for our future properly,” he said.