2009 Queensland state election

2009 Queensland state election
All 89 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland ; 45 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	90.93 ( 0.46 pp)
	Winning margin by electorate.
Premier before election; Anna Bligh ; Labor	Elected Premier ; Anna Bligh ; Labor

Last updated April 21, 2024

The 2009 Queensland state election was held on 21 March 2009 to elect all 89 members of the Legislative Assembly, a unicameral parliament.

The election saw the incumbent Labor government led by Premier Anna Bligh defeat the Liberal National Party of Queensland led by Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg, and gain a fifth consecutive term in office for her party. Bligh thus became the first female Premier of any Australian State elected in her own right.^[1]

The 2009 election marked the eighth consecutive victory of Labor in a general election since 1989, although it was out of office between 1996 and 1998 as a direct result of the 1996 Mundingburra by-election.

Key dates

Date	Event
23 February 2009	Writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.^[2]
28 February 2009	Close of electoral rolls
3 March 2009	Close of nominations
21 March 2009	Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm
26 March 2009	The Bligh Ministry was reconstituted^[3]
7 April 2009	The writ was returned and the results formally declared
12 April 2009	53rd Parliament convened

The previous state election was held on 9 September 2006 to elect the 89 members of the Legislative Assembly. In Queensland, for the government to serve a full-term, an election will be held approximately three years following the previous election. In Queensland, Section 80 of the Electoral Act 1992 states that an election must be held on a Saturday; and that the election campaign must run for a minimum of 26 or a maximum of 56 days following the issue of the writs. Five to seven days following the issue of the writs, the electoral roll is closed, which gives voters a final opportunity to enrol or to notify the Electoral Commission of Queensland of any changes in their place of residence.^[4]

Results

Queensland state election, 21 March 2009^[5] Legislative Assembly << 2006–2012 >>
Enrolled voters		2,660,940
Votes cast		2,419,559		Turnout	90.93	+0.46
Informal votes		46,908		Informal	1.94	–0.14
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor	1,002,415	42.25	–4.67	51	–8
	Liberal National	987,018	41.60	+3.68	34	+9
	Greens	198,475	8.37	+0.38	0	±0
	DS4SEQ	22,170	0.93	+0.93	0	±0
	Family First	19,379	0.82	–1.07	0	±0
	One Nation	9,038	0.38	–0.22	0	–1
	Independent	134,156	5.65	+0.97	4	±0
Total		2,372,651			89
Two-party-preferred
	Labor		50.9	−4.1
	Liberal National		49.1	+4.1
^{* The two-party preferred summary is an estimate by Antony Green using a methodology by Malcolm Mackerras.}

Popular vote

Labor			42.45%
LNP			41.60%
Greens			8.37%
DS4SEQ			0.93%
Family First			0.82%
One Nation			0.38%
Independents			5.65%

Two-party preferred vote

Labor			50.9%
LNP			49.1%

Seats

Labor			57.30%
LNP			38.20%
Independents			4.49%

Seats changing hands

Seat	2008 Redistribution				Swing	2009 Election
Seat	Party		Member	Margin	Swing	Margin	Member	Party
Aspley		Labor	Bonny Barry	3.0	-7.46	4.46	Tracy Davis	Liberal National
Burdekin		Labor	notional	0.9	-4.05	3.15	Rosemary Menkens	Liberal National
Clayfield		Labor	notional	0.3	-6.14	5.84	Tim Nicholls	Liberal National
Cleveland		Labor	Phil Weightman	1.2	-1.48	0.28	Mark Robinson	Liberal National
Coomera		Labor	notional	8.3	-10.21	1.91	Michael Crandon	Liberal National
Gaven		Labor	Phil Gray	3.2	-3.92	0.72	Alex Douglas	Liberal National
Hervey Bay		Labor	Andrew McNamara	2.1	-8.60	6.50	Ted Sorensen	Liberal National
Indooroopilly		Labor	Ronan Lee¹	2.7	-8.57	5.87	Scott Emerson	Liberal National
Mirani		Labor	Jim Pearce²	1.2	-1.79	0.59	Ted Malone	Liberal National
Mudgeeraba		Labor	Dianne Reilly	2.7	-6.62	3.92	Ros Bates	Liberal National
Redlands		Labor	John English	6.7	-6.77	0.07	Peter Dowling	Liberal National

Members listed in italics did not contest their seat at this election.
¹ Ronan Lee was elected as a member of the Labor Party, but resigned and joined the Greens.
² The Labor-held electorate of Fitzroy and the National-held electorate of Mirani were combined into the electorate of Mirani with a notional Labor majority of 1.20%.

Legislative Assembly

The Labor Party, led by Premier Anna Bligh, and the LNP, led by Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg, were the two main parties in Queensland at the election. It was the first election contested by the LNP following its creation with the merger of the National and Liberal parties. At the previous election, Labor won 59 seats, the Nationals won 17 seats, the Liberals won eight seats, One Nation won one seat, and independents won four seats. Former Labor MP Ronan Lee joined the Greens in 2008, thus becoming their parliamentary leader. Lee lost his seat at the election.^[6]

A redistribution saw Labor notionally pick up three seats. Therefore, the LNP notionally needed to pick up 22 seats rather than 20 seats to form a majority government, which equated to an unchanged uniform 8.3 percent two party preferred swing.^[7]

Former Premier Peter Beattie resigned in September 2007, which triggered the October 2007 Brisbane Central by-election.

Parties contesting the election

Party	Seats Contested (2009)	Seats Contested (2006)
Australian Labor Party	89	89
LNP	88	89†
The Greens	89	75
DS4SEQ	32	N/A
Family First	25	26
One Nation	2	4
Independents & Others	72	46

† Contested 2006 elections as Liberal Party (49 seats) and National Party (40) seats.

Both the Australian Labor Party and the Greens contested all 89 seats. This was the first Queensland state election in which the Greens contested every seat. The LNP contested every seat except Gladstone (held by an Independent), which they avoided for strategic reasons. A total of 397 candidates contested the election—the largest number of candidates to contest a Queensland election since 1998.

Post-election pendulum

Government seats
Marginal
Chatsworth	Steve Kilburn	ALP	0.14%
Everton	Murray Watt	ALP	1.39%
Broadwater	Peta-Kaye Croft	ALP	2.03%
Cook	Jason O'Brien	ALP	2.24%
Barron River	Steve Wettenhall	ALP	2.32%
Toowoomba North	Kerry Shine	ALP	3.22%
Whitsunday	Jan Jarratt	ALP	3.24%
Southport	Peter Lawlor	ALP	3.48%
Townsville	Mandy Johnstone	ALP	4.02%
Springwood	Barbara Stone	ALP	4.08%
Cairns	Desley Boyle	ALP	4.15%
Mansfield	Phil Reeves	ALP	4.39%
Ferny Grove	Geoff Wilson	ALP	4.49%
Pine Rivers	Carolyn Male	ALP	4.61%
Kallangur	Mary-Anne O'Neill	ALP	4.63%
Mount Ommaney	Julie Attwood	ALP	4.79%
Burleigh	Christine Smith	ALP	4.90%
Pumicestone	Carryn Sullivan	ALP	4.99%
Mount Coot-tha	Andrew Fraser	ALP	5.25%
Redcliffe	Lillian van Litsenburg	ALP	5.57%
Mount Isa	Betty Kiernan	ALP	5.72%
Brisbane Central	Grace Grace	ALP	5.97%
Fairly Safe
Albert	Margaret Keech	ALP	6.47%
Mundingburra	Lindy Nelson-Carr	ALP	6.59%
Greenslopes	Cameron Dick	ALP	6.94%
Ashgrove	Kate Jones	ALP	7.10%
Murrumba	Dean Wells	ALP	7.21%
Stafford	Stirling Hinchliffe	ALP	7.29%
Keppel	Paul Hoolihan	ALP	7.62%
Bulimba	Di Farmer	ALP	7.77%
Mulgrave	Curtis Pitt	ALP	8.08%
Thuringowa	Craig Wallace	ALP	8.47%
Yeerongpilly	Simon Finn	ALP	8.73%
Morayfield	Mark Ryan	ALP	9.13%
Algester	Karen Struthers	ALP	9.21%
Stretton	Stephen Robertson	ALP	9.48%
Ipswich West	Wayne Wendt	ALP	9.55%
Capalaba	Michael Choi	ALP	9.67%
Safe
Sunnybank	Judy Spence	ALP	10.79%
Lytton	Paul Lucas	ALP	12.21%
Sandgate	Vicky Darling	ALP	12.37%
Logan	John Mickel	ALP	13.93%
Nudgee	Neil Roberts	ALP	14.26%
South Brisbane	Anna Bligh	ALP	15.01%
Waterford	Evan Moorhead	ALP	16.46%
Ipswich	Rachel Nolan	ALP	16.71%
Mackay	Tim Mulherin	ALP	16.72%
Rockhampton	Robert Schwarten	ALP	17.92%
Very Safe
Bundamba	Jo-Ann Miller	ALP	21.23%
Inala	Annastacia Palaszczuk	ALP	21.53%
Woodridge	Desley Scott	ALP	25.37%

Non-government seats
Marginal
Redlands	Peter Dowling	LNP	0.07%
Cleveland	Mark Robinson	LNP	0.28%
Mirani	Ted Malone	LNP	0.59%
Gaven	Alex Douglas	LNP	0.72%
Coomera	Michael Crandon	LNP	1.91%
Burdekin	Rosemary Menkens	LNP	3.15%
Mudgeeraba	Ros Bates	LNP	3.92%
Aspley	Tracy Davis	LNP	4.46%
Dalrymple	Shane Knuth	LNP	5.18% v ONP
Glass House	Andrew Powell	LNP	5.81%
Clayfield	Tim Nicholls	LNP	5.84%
Indooroopilly	Scott Emerson	LNP	5.87%
Fairly Safe
Bundaberg	Jack Dempsey	LNP	6.02%
Caloundra	Mark McArdle	LNP	6.20%
Hervey Bay	Ted Sorensen	LNP	6.50%
Currumbin	Jann Stuckey	LNP	6.89%
Kawana	Jarrod Bleijie	LNP	6.93%
Lockyer	Ian Rickuss	LNP	7.61%
Toowoomba South	Mike Horan	LNP	8.22%
Beaudesert	Aidan McLindon	LNP	8.31%
Safe
Mermaid Beach	Ray Stevens	LNP	10.81%
Burnett	Rob Messenger	LNP	11.10%
Moggill	Bruce Flegg	LNP	11.28%
Condamine	Ray Hopper	LNP	11.56% v IND
Maroochydore	Fiona Simpson	LNP	12.80%
Gregory	Vaughan Johnson	LNP	14.26%
Buderim	Steve Dickson	LNP	14.28%
Hinchinbrook	Andrew Cripps	LNP	14.69%
Surfers Paradise	John-Paul Langbroek	LNP	16.52%
Callide	Jeff Seeney	LNP	19.36%
Noosa	Glen Elmes	LNP	19.85%
Very Safe
Southern Downs	Lawrence Springborg	LNP	21.08%
Warrego	Howard Hobbs	LNP	24.38%
Gympie	David Gibson	LNP	27.21%
Crossbench seats
Nanango	Dorothy Pratt	IND	2.90% v LNP
Gladstone	Liz Cunningham	IND	6.13% v ALP
Nicklin	Peter Wellington	IND	16.31% v LNP
Maryborough	Chris Foley	IND	16.83% v LNP

Subsequent changes

On 5 May 2010, Aidan McLindon (Beaudesert) and Rob Messenger (Burnett) resigned from the Liberal National Party. On 11 October 2011, Aidan McLindon joined Katter's Australian Party.
On 31 October 2011, Shane Knuth (Dalrymple) resigned from the Liberal National Party and joined the Katter's Australian Party.

Polling

Newspoll polling was conducted via random telephone number selection in city and country areas. Sampling sizes usually consist of around 1000 electors, with the declared margin of error at around ±3 percent.

**Better Premier ratings^**
Date	Labor Bligh	Coalition/LNP Springborg
18 – 19 Mar 2009	53%	33%
27 Feb – 8 Mar 2009	48%	34%
Jan – Feb 2009	48%	31%
Oct – Dec 2008	49%	30%
Jul – Sep 2008	53%	27%
Apr – Jun 2008	60%	24%
Jan – Mar 2008	64%	18%
Oct – Dec 2007	66%	11%²
Jul – Sep 2007	54%¹	25%²
Apr – Jun 2007	54%¹	19%²
Pre 2006 election	58%¹	28%
Pre 2004 election	62%¹	22%
Polling conducted by Newspoll and published in The Australian . ^ Remainder were "uncommitted" to either leader. ¹ Peter Beattie, ² Jeff Seeney

**Legislative Assembly opinion polling**
	Political parties							Two party preferred
Dates	ALP	Lib	Nat	LNP	Grn	FFP	Oth	ALP	LNP
18 – 19 Mar 2009	42%			42%	7%	0.5%	8%	49.9%	50.1%
27 Feb – 8 Mar 2009	41%			43%	8%	<0.5%	8%	49%	51%
Jan – Feb 2009	42%			41%	7%	<0.5%	10%	53%	47%
Oct – Dec 2008	45%			37%	8%	<0.5%	10%	57%	43%
Jul – Sep 2008	38%			41%	9%	1%	11%	51%	49%
Apr – Jun 2008	43%	26%	12%	38%	10%	<0.5%	9%	55%	45%
Jan – Mar 2008	50%	22%	10%	32%	8%	<0.5%	10%	60%	40%
Oct – Dec 2007	50%	26%	9%	35%	6%	1%	8%	59%	41%
Jul – Sep 2007	50%	21%	12%	33%	5%	2%	10%	59%	41%
Apr – Jun 2007	51%	20%	11%	31%	6%	1%	11%	61%	39%
2006 election	46.9%	20.1%	17.8%	37.9%	8.0%	1.9%	5.3%	55.0%	45.0%
6 – 7 Sep 2006	48%	21%	17%	38%	4%	1%	9%	55%	45%
2004 election	47%	18.5%	17%	35.5%	6.7%	4.9%	5.9%	55.5%	44.5%
Polling conducted by Newspoll and published in The Australian .

Notes

1 2 Of the combined totals of the National and Liberal parties.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawrence Springborg</span> Australian politician

Lawrence James Springborg is an Australian politician. He led the National Party in the Queensland Parliament from 2003 to 2006 and again in 2008, before becoming the first leader of the merged Liberal National Party from 2008 to 2009. He led the LNP again from 2015 to 2016 before announcing his retirement. He currently serves as Mayor of Goondiwindi Regional Council, having been elected in March 2020.

The Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP) is a major political party in Queensland, Australia. It was formed in 2008 by a merger of the Queensland divisions of the Liberal Party and the National Party. At a federal level and in most other states, the two parties remain distinct and often operate as a Coalition. The LNP is a division of the Liberal Party of Australia, and an affiliate of the National Party of Australia.

An election was held in the Australian state of Queensland on 9 September 2006 to elect the 89 members of the state's Legislative Assembly, after being announced by Premier Peter Beattie on 15 August 2006.

Stuart William Copeland is an Australian politician. He was a National/Liberal National from 2001 to 2009, representing the district of Cunningham.

Gaven is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland. It was created out of the former district of Nerang and the southern segment of Albert in the 2001 redistribution, and encompasses the northern growth corridor of the Gold Coast. The current Member of Parliament is Meaghan Scanlon of the Labor Party. It is currently the only Labor-held seat on the Gold Coast.

Peter William Wellington is an Australian politician. He was the independent member for Nicklin in the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1998 to 2017, and served as Speaker from 2015 to 2017. Wellington has held the balance of power in the legislature twice in his career, and both times saw him give support to Labor-led minority governments.

Clayfield is an electoral division of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. It is centred on the inner northern suburb of Clayfield in the state capital of Brisbane.

Southern Downs is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland. It was created in 2001 as a replacement for Warwick.

Shane Andrew Knuth is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly since 2004, representing three successive seats: Charters Towers (2004–2009), Dalrymple (2009–2017) and Hill (2017–present). He has variously represented the National Party (2004–08), the Liberal National Party (2008–11) and Katter's Australian Party (2011–present).

Alexander Rodney Douglas is a former Australian politician. He was a National Party member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from April to September 2006, representing the electorate of Gaven. He was elected for the same seat as a Liberal National Party member in 2009, and re-elected in 2012.

This is a list of members of the 53rd Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 2009 to 2012, as elected at the 2009 election held on 21 March 2009.

The 2012 Queensland state election was held on 24 March 2012 to elect all 89 members of the Legislative Assembly, a unicameral parliament.

Scott Anthony Emerson is a former Australian politician and journalist. He is a director of national consulting firm GXO Strategies and a commentator on Nine Entertainment’s national breakfast television program Today. He hosted the Scott Emerson Drive Show on Brisbane talkback radio station 4BC from 2020 to 2022. He served as the Minister for Transport and Main Roads Minister in the Newman Ministry from 2012 to 2015. In the Legislative Assembly of Queensland he represented the seat of Indooroopilly in Brisbane's inner-west, from 2009 to 2017. Indooroopilly was abolished at the 2017 state election and Emerson chose to contest the new seat of Maiwar which had a notional LNP margin of 3%; Emerson was unsuccessful in his bid, losing to the Greens candidate Michael Berkman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aidan McLindon</span> Australian politician (born 1980)

Aidan Patrick McLindon is an Australian politician. He was first elected for the seat of Beaudesert to the Queensland State Parliament for the Liberal National Party at the 2009 state election. He resigned from that party to become an independent in May 2010, and in June 2010 he established The Queensland Party, which he merged with Katter's Australian Party in August 2011. He lost his seat to the LNP at the 2012 election. Bob Katter appointed McLindon as National Director for the newly created Katter's Australian Party. 18 months later McLindon resigned to spend more time with his family. McLindon established an independent political consultancy, AMac Consultants Pty Ltd, following the 2013 federal election.

The Queensland Party was a political party based in Queensland, Australia. It was registered with the Electoral Commission of Queensland between August 2010 and March 2012. The Queensland Party was formed by Aidan McLindon, the Member for Beaudesert, after he resigned from the Liberal National Party in May, 2010.

The 2015 Queensland state election was held on 31 January 2015 to elect all 89 members of the unicameral Legislative Assembly of Queensland.

The 2017 Queensland state election was held on 25 November 2017 to elect all 93 members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, the unicameral Parliament of Queensland.

The 2020 Queensland state election was held on 31 October to elect all 93 members to the 57th Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The Labor Party was returned to government for a third-term, led by incumbent premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. With 47 seats needed to form a majority government, Labor won 52 seats, including all but five in Brisbane, while the Liberal National Party won 34 seats and formed opposition. On the crossbench, Katter's Australian Party retained its 3 seats, the Queensland Greens picked up South Brisbane for a total of 2, Pauline Hanson's One Nation retained Mirani and independent Sandy Bolton retained her seat of Noosa.

The 2024 Queensland state election is scheduled to be held on 26 October 2024 to elect all members to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland pursuant to the Constitution Amendment Act 2015. As a result of the 2016 Queensland term length referendum, the term of the parliament will run for four years.

The number of seats won by each party in the Australian House of Representatives at the 2022 federal election were: Coalition 58, Labor 77, Australian Greens 4, Centre Alliance 1, Katter's Australian Party 1, and Independents 10.

References

↑ "Queensland elects female premier". BBC News Online. 21 March 2009.
↑ "Election Timetable: 2009 State General Election". Electoral Commission of Queensland. Archived from the original on 17 March 2012.
↑ Queensland, Gazette: Extraordinary Archived March 17, 2012, at the Wayback Machine , No 71, 26 March 2009, 1307
↑ Electoral Act 1992 ^{[ dead link ]}
↑ ECQ. "Parliament of Queensland, Assembly election, 21 March 2009". Archived from the original on 26 February 2011.
↑ "Qld Labor MP jumps ship to Greens". ABC News. 5 October 2008. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
↑ "2008 QLD redistribution". ABC. 21 March 2009. Retrieved 25 January 2012.

External links

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[LNP-1] 1 2 Of the combined totals of the National and Liberal parties.

[2] "Queensland elects female premier". BBC News Online. 21 March 2009.

[3] "Election Timetable: 2009 State General Election". Electoral Commission of Queensland. Archived from the original on 17 March 2012.

[4] Queensland, Gazette: Extraordinary Archived March 17, 2012, at the Wayback Machine , No 71, 26 March 2009, 1307

[5] Electoral Act 1992 ^{[ dead link ]}

[6] ECQ. "Parliament of Queensland, Assembly election, 21 March 2009". Archived from the original on 26 February 2011.

[7] "Qld Labor MP jumps ship to Greens". ABC News. 5 October 2008. Retrieved 9 August 2018.

[8] "2008 QLD redistribution". ABC. 21 March 2009. Retrieved 25 January 2012.

[lower-alpha 1]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

v t e Elections and referendums in Queensland
General elections	1860 1863 1867 1868 1870 1871 1873 1878 1883 1888 1893 1896 1899 1902 1904 1907 1908 1909 1912 1915 1918 1920 1923 1926 1929 1932 1935 1938 1941 1944 1947 1950 1953 1956 1957 1960 1963 1966 1969 1972 1974 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2006 2009 2012 2015 2017 2020 2024
Local elections	1933 1936 1949 1955 1961 1982 1991 1993 1994 1995 1997 2000 2004 2008 2012 2013 2016 2020 2024
Mayoral elections	1933 1936 1949 1955 1961 1982 1991 1993 1994 1995 1997 2000 2004 2008 2012 2013 2016 2020 2024
Referendums	1899 1910 1917 1920 1923 1991 1992 2016
See also: State by-elections