Queensland Environment Minister Steven Miles denies he's running from a fight by moving to an outer-Brisbane seat after his electorate was split up in the recent boundary redistribution.
Dr Miles has avoided an upcoming election showdown with shadow treasurer Scott Emerson by moving out of his current electorate of Mt Coot-tha and into Murrumba.
Among the drastic changes in the electoral redistributions, Mt Coot-tha was merged with Mr Emerson's seat of Indooroopilly to form the new electorate of Maiwar.
Mr Emerson immediately announced he would contest Maiwar, but Labor's Dr Miles took time to weigh up whether he should stay in the inner-western area.
But on Monday the environment minister said he would move to Murrumba, north of Brisbane, with current Murrumba MP Chris Whiting to move to the new seat of Bancroft.
Mr Emerson said he couldn't believe Dr Miles decided to leave.
"He said he was committed to the area, but the first opportunity, he's cut and run," Mr Emerson told reporters.
"He'll be 40 kilometres away from this local community at the next state election."
Dr Miles denied abandoning his electorate.
"The option to run in Mt Coot-tha was not there. The seat itself was abolished," he said.
"Maiwar is not the seat I live in. It's not the seat I'm close to."
Mt Coot-tha has consistently been the best-performing seat for the Queensland Greens, and candidate Michael Berkman says he hopes they will have a similarly strong showing in Maiwar
"Just talking to people on the ground there I think we have a really strong chance," Mr Berkman told reporters on Monday.
"We're long overdue to have a strong, independent, Greens voice in state parliament and that's what we're hoping to achieve in Maiwar
Queensland MPs have spent the weekend deciding their future after the draft changes were released on Friday.
The redistribution has seen formerly safe seats become more marginal, while some have technically changed their allegiance.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says all 42 sitting Labor MPs will contest a seat, while the party will have preselections for six others - Cook, Cairns, Jordan, Macalister, Mansfield and Mount Ommaney - before the end of April.
"We have a very important budget to deliver in June this year," she said.
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