Blair records highest financial stress in the state
Rising mortgage repayments, high rents, and surging daily expenses are driving widespread financial stress across suburban Australia, with electorates like Blair in south-east Queensland emerging as key battlegrounds in the upcoming 2025 federal election.
Located in Brisbane’s western growth corridor, Blair has recorded the highest rate of household financial stress in Queensland, according to ABC News. More than 77% of households in the electorate are experiencing some form of financial strain, including two-thirds of mortgage holders and over 90% of renters.
According to Associate Professor John Cole of the University of Southern Queensland, financial hardship is particularly pronounced in areas where working families are striving to maintain home ownership.
“If you map financial stress, you’ll find it strongest in areas where you find aspirational Australians, people that have a mortgage. Four in 10 households in Blair have a mortgage,” Cole said.
Cole described Blair as representative of many newly developed urban fringes in Australia, where rising housing costs and stagnant income growth have made day-to-day living increasingly difficult.
The electorate includes outer suburbs like Ripley, characterised by rapid residential development and a high concentration of first-home buyers. While the expansion has provided housing opportunities, it has also come with challenges: limited access to local high-paying jobs, increased reliance on long-distance commuting or fly-in fly-out work, and growing pressure on household budgets.
Blair has been held by Labor’s Shayne Neumann since 2007 and is currently held on a margin of 5.23%. While the seat is likely to remain with Labor, it remains a focus for both major parties as economic pressures deepen across the electorate.
As cost-of-living challenges intensify nationwide, electorates like Blair are becoming key indicators of how rising household stress may shape voting behaviour in the 2025 federal election.
“There are people that are much harder done by than us. But our mortgage repayments nearly work out to $900 a week—no average person can afford that. Add on other cost of living issues, and people struggle,” one resident told ABC News.
