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Bowman Australian House of Representatives Division
Created:	1949
MP:	Andrew Laming
Party:	Liberal
Namesake:	David Bowman
Electors:	88,977
Area:	560 km² (216 sq mi)
Demographic:	Outer Metropolitan

The Division of Bowman is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland. The division was created in 1949 and is named for David Bowman, an early leader of the Australian Labor Party, in Queensland. The seat is located in the eastern suburbs of Brisbane, and currently includes the suburbs of Capalaba, Cleveland, Redland Bay, Birkdale, Thorneside, Alexandra Hills, Thornlands, Mt Cotton, Cornubia, Ormiston, Wellington Point and Victoria Point. The division also incorporates various islands of Moreton Bay including Coochiemudlo the inhabited southern Bay Islands (Russell, Karragarra, Macleay and Lamb) as well as the big tourist destination of North Stradbroke.

Bowman is 573 km² in area and is defined as outer metropolitan. At the last election there were 86,262 enrolled voters. It is generally a residential electorate with some crops, poultry, various light industries and tourism.

Bowman has traditionally been a highly marginal seat, regularly changing hands between the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party. Notably, the electorate has been won by the party with the largest national two party preferred vote at every election from 1954 to 2001 (except 1990). However, in the 2004 Federal Election, an energetic campaign by Dr Andrew Laming, and an electoral redistribution (due to the creation of the new Division of Bonner), saw Bowman returned to the Liberal Party by a significant margin (59.12% two party preferred) and the division was then considered by pollsters such as Antony Green to be a fairly safe Liberal seat.

In the 2007 Federal Election the electorate experienced a strong swing of 8.86% towards the Australian Labor Party. Incumbent Liberal MP Andrew Laming held the seat by 0.04%, or 64 votes. It is second only to McEwen as the most marginal seat in the country.

[edit] Members

	Party	Term
Malcolm McColm	Liberal	1949–1961
Jack Comber	Labor	1961–1963
Wylie Gibbs	Liberal	1963–1969
Leonard Keogh	Labor	1969–1975
David Jull	Liberal	1975–1983
Leonard Keogh	Labor	1983–1987
Con Sciacca	Labor	1987–1996
Andrea West	Liberal	1996–1998
Con Sciacca	Labor	1998–2004
Andrew Laming	Liberal	2004–present

[edit] Election results

Australian federal election, 2007: Bowman
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Andrew Laming	37,886	46.16	-4.27
	Labor	Jason Young	36,207	44.11	+8.37
	Greens	Brad Scott	4,475	5.45	+0.67
	Family First	Alan Lucas	2,405	2.93	-1.03
	Democrats	Paul Holland	676	0.82	-0.25
	One Nation	Dave Chidgey	433	0.53	+0.53
Total formal votes			82,082	96.62	+1.56
Informal votes			2,873	3.38	-1.56
Turnout			84,955	95.48	+0.89
Two Candidate Preferred Result
	Liberal	Andrew Laming	41,073	50.04	-8.86
	Labor	Jason Young	41,009	49.96	+8.86
	Liberal hold		Swing	-8.86

Australian federal election, 2004: Bowman
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Andrew Laming	39,363	50.59	+3.19
	Labor	Donna Webster	27,631	35.51	-4.74
	Greens	Paula Nadas	3,729	4.79	+2.18
	Family First	Mal Cayley	3,126	4.02	+4.02
	National	Joe Ross	3,125	4.02	+4.02
	Democrats	Robert H Bromwich	835	1.07	-3.62
Total formal votes			77,809	95.04	+0.18
Informal votes			4,063	4.96	-0.18
Turnout			81,872	94.51	-0.04
Two Candidate Preferred Result
	Liberal	Andrew Laming	41,073	59.12	+6.06
	Labor	Donna Webster	31,805	40.88	-6.06
	Liberal hold		Swing	+6.06