1995 Canberra by-election

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1995 Canberra by-election
Flag of the Australian Capital Territory.svg
25 March 1995
 First partySecond partyThird party
  Brendan Smyth Wanniassa head.jpg Labor Placeholder.png Greens placeholder-01.png
CandidateBrendan SmythSue RobinsonJames Warden
Party Liberal Labor Greens
Popular vote39,02125,68910,835
Percentage46.29%30.48%12.85%
SwingIncrease2.svg 10.07Decrease2.svg 21.78Increase2.svg 12.85
TPP 56.58%43.42%
TPP swingIncrease2.svg 16.12Decrease2.svg 16.12

MP before election

Ros Kelly
Labor

Elected MP

Brendan Smyth
Liberal

The 1995 Canberra by-election was held in the Australian electorate of Canberra in Australian Capital Territory on 25 March 1995. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of the sitting member, the Australian Labor Party's Ros Kelly on 30 January 1995. The writ for the by-election was issued on 17 February 1995.

Contents

The by-election was won by Liberal Party candidate Brendan Smyth, making it the first (and currently the only) by-election in the ACT to have been won by the Liberal Party.

The by-election took place in the shadow of the "sports rorts" affair which resulted in Kelly's resignation as a minister.

Smyth would later contest the new seat of Namadgi at the 1996 election but was defeated. Subsequent to his career in Federal Parliament, Smyth became leader of the ACT Liberal Party from 2002 to 2006.

This was the last by election that the Liberal Party took a seat off of another party.

Results

Canberra by-election, 1995 [1] [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Liberal Brendan Smyth 39,02146.29+10.07
Labor Sue Robinson25,68930.48−21.78
Greens James Warden10,83512.85+12.85
Against Further Immigration Robyn Spencer3,5154.17+4.17
Independent Joanne Clarke2,2742.70+2.70
Independent Jerzy Gray-Grzeszkiewicz1,9562.32+2.32
Republican Joseph Cotta1,0031.19+1.19
Total formal votes84,29396.46−0.68
Informal votes3,0953.54+0.68
Turnout 87,38888.57−8.39
Two-party-preferred result
Liberal Brendan Smyth 47,67256.58+16.12
Labor Sue Robinson36,57743.42−16.12
Liberal gain from Labor Swing +16.12

See also

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References