11:00a.m. 20th August 2008

| Suzanne Keen and AAP

A new Queensland seat of Buderim will definitely be created under changed electoral boundaries announced today to cater for rapid population growth in the state’s south-east.

The Electoral Commission of Queensland has confirmed the final details of the first redistribution of the state’s 89 electorates since 1999.

It adds no additional seats, but changes most existing boundaries.

The coalition-held seats of Charters Towers, Cunningham, Darling Downs and Robina, Labor’s Fitzroy, Kurwongbah and Mount Gravatt and One Nation’s seat of Tablelands will be renamed and significantly redrawn.

The commission said the new seats would be named Dalrymple, Condamine, Buderim, Pine Rivers, Morayfield, Sunnybank, Mermaid Beach and Coomera.

This will bring the total number of seats on the Sunshine Coast to seven.

The new seat of Buderim extends from Petrie Creek in the north to Tanawha in the south, and is bound by the Bruce Highway to the west and the Sunshine Coast motorway to the east and south.

It takes in parts of the current Kawana, Maroochydore and Nicklin electorates, and includes Kuluin, Mountain Creek, Buderim, Tanawha, Kunda Park, Kiels Mountain, Diddillibah and Rosemount.

In the commission’s report, it says it took account of “communication and travel, physical features and existing boundaries” when preparing the boundaries.

It noted that improved communication meant electorates could be larger without adverse impacts on voters.

“Ways of communication now include widespread use of the internet, email and mobile phones, enabling electors to live further from their elected representative yet still find it relatively easy to seek assistance when required,” it wrote.

The commission said it would have been preferable to keep discrete areas of the state together, but the voter population did not fall uniformly to allow this to happen.

“The end result of a careful process of adjustment is that there has been an increase in the number of electorates in the faster-growing regions of the south-east, necessitating a reduction in other, less populous areas,” the report says.

“All told, there have been many changes to existing boundaries in all regions to enable electoral districts to meld with their neighbouring electorates.”

The recommendation for a new Buderim electorate was announced in May and was welcomed at the time by Sunshine Coast MPs, who said it would strengthen the region’s representation.

Kawana Liberal MP Steve Dickson was the first to declare his intention to contest the seat.

He said the decision had been made after “careful consideration” as about 60% of residents in his current seat would come under the new boundaries of the Buderim seat.

The Electoral Commission received a total of 852 objections and 58 comments over the changed boundaries, which will become final within 21 days.

A state election is expected by September next year.

Visit the Queensland Electoral Commission website to see its full report and to view maps showing the new electoral boundaries.