 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A by-election was held for the seat of South Brisbane in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland on 28 April 2012, the same day as local government elections, following the decision of former premier Anna Bligh to retire from politics. Jackie Trad retained the seat for the Labor Party. [1] [2]
Anna Bligh first entered the Parliament of Queensland as the Labor member for the seat of South Brisbane at the 1995 state election. She became leader of the party and Premier of Queensland following the resignation of Peter Beattie in 2007.
Bligh retained her seat at the 2012 state election with a 38.6 percent primary vote, a reduction of 9.8 points, and 55.0 percent of the two-party preferred vote, a reduction of 10.0 points. Statewide, Labor suffered a landslide defeat retaining only seven of 89 seats. Bligh immediately resigned as both premier and party leader, and on 30 March 2012 resigned from Parliament. [3] [4]
Bligh intended the resignation to be timed so as to allow a by-election to be held on 28 April 2012, the same day as local government elections, but said she would understand if the new government chose a different day. [3] Later, a question emerged over whether her resignation could be effective on 30 March as she was not formally in possession of the seat. [5] But on 2 April, she was declared the winner, [6] and a writ was subsequently issued for the by-election. [7]
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 3 April 2012 | Writ of election issued by the governor |
| 7 April 2012 | Close of electoral rolls |
| 11 April 2012 | Close of nominations |
| 28 April 2012 | Polling day, between the hours of 8 am and 6 pm |
| 28 May 2012 | Last day for writ to be returned and results formally declared |
The declared candidates, in ballot paper order, were as follows: [8]
| Candidate nominations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Independent | Jason McKenzie | Employed with an accounting and consulting firm. Former employee with News Limited. | |
| Daylight Saving for South East Queensland | Penny Panorea | Owns a design studio and art house cafe. | |
| Family First Party | Penny McCreery | Business and law student. | |
| Queensland Greens | Jo-Anne Bragg* | Environmental and resources non-profit legal centre Director. Contested 2008 Brisbane Lord Mayoralty. | |
| Liberal National Party of Queensland | Clem Grehan* | Infrastructure project manager. | |
| Independent | Liam Flenady* | Endorsed candidate of the unregistered Socialist Alliance. Musician and political activist. | |
| Labor Party | Jackie Trad | Former adviser to the Beattie and Bligh governments and Queensland Labor's Assistant State Secretary. | |
| Katter's Australian Party | Robert Wardrop* | Owns a concrete formworks manufacturing company. | |
* Candidate contested South Brisbane at the 2012 state election.
The LNP candidate was Clem Grehan who stood against Bligh at the general election when he substantially slashed her majority. Grehan gained further ground in the by-election but was not enough to win the seat.
Despite coming close to winning South Brisbane in this by-election he did not run again for the LNP in the seat at the 2015 election.
The results of the election were: [9] [10]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal National | Clem Grehan | 7,761 | 38.0 | –0.1 | |
| Labor | Jackie Trad | 6,720 | 32.9 | –5.7 | |
| Greens | Jo-Anne Bragg | 3,960 | 19.4 | +1.3 | |
| DS4SEQ | Penny Panorea | 751 | 3.7 | +3.7 | |
| Katter's Australian | Robert Wardrop | 435 | 2.1 | –1.3 | |
| Independent | Jason McKenzie | 349 | 1.7 | +1.7 | |
| Family First | Penny McCreery | 261 | 1.3 | +1.3 | |
| Independent Socialist Alliance | Liam Flenady | 189 | 0.9 | –1.0 | |
| Total formal votes | 20,426 | 98.2 | +0.2 | ||
| Informal votes | 383 | 1.8 | –0.2 | ||
| Turnout | 20,809 | 67.5 | –19.6 | ||
| Two-party-preferred result | |||||
| Labor | Jackie Trad | 8,963 | 51.7 | –3.0 | |
| Liberal National | Clem Grehan | 8,388 | 48.3 | +3.0 | |
| Labor hold | Swing | –3.0 | |||
Campbell Kevin Thomas Newman is an Australian former politician who served as the 38th Premier of Queensland from 26 March 2012 to 14 February 2015. He served as the member for Ashgrove in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland between 24 March 2012 and 31 January 2015. He was LNP Leader from 2 April 2011 to 7 February 2015; Newman previously served as the 15th Lord Mayor of Brisbane from 27 March 2004 to 3 April 2011.
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.
Anna Maria Bligh is an Australian lobbyist and former politician who served as the 37th Premier of Queensland, in office from 2007 to 2012 as leader of the Queensland Labor Party. She was the first woman to hold either position. In 2017, she was appointed CEO of the Australian Banking Association.
The Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP) is a major conservative 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.
The Queensland Greens is a Green party in Queensland, Australia, and a state member of the Australian Greens. The party is currently represented in all three levels of government, by Larissa Waters and Penny Allman-Payne in the federal Senate; Stephen Bates, Max Chandler-Mather, and Elizabeth Watson-Brown in the House of Representatives; Michael Berkman and Amy MacMahon in the state Legislative Assembly; and Trina Massey and Seal Chong Wah in Brisbane City Council.
John-Paul Honoré Langbroek is an Australian politician who has been a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland representing the centre-right Liberal Party and its successor, the centre-right Liberal National Party, in the seat of Surfers Paradise since 2004. He was Leader of the Opposition and parliamentary leader of the LNP from 2009 to 2011—the first person from the Liberal side of the merger to hold the post. He was a minister in the Newman government before its defeat at the 2015 state election.
Annastacia Palaszczuk is an Australian politician who served as the 39th premier of Queensland from 2015 to 2023. She held office as the leader of the Queensland branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 2012 until her resignation, and has been a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland (MLA) for the division of Inala since 2006. Palaszczuk is the fifth-most-tenured premier in Queensland state history and the first woman to win the premiership from opposition, she also presided over the first majority female cabinet in Australian state and federal history.
Jeffrey William Seeney is a former Australian politician and the former Deputy Premier, Minister for State Development and Minister for Infrastructure and Planning of Queensland. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1998 to 2017, representing Callide for the Nationals (1998–2008) and merged Liberal National Party (2008–2017).
South Brisbane, also known as Brisbane South, is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The electorate encompasses suburbs in Brisbane's inner-south, stretching from East Brisbane to West End, and south to Annerley. Parts of Greenslopes and Coorparoo are also located in the electorate.
Andrew Peter Fraser is Chancellor of Griffith University, and was formerly an Australian Labor politician. He was first elected into the Legislative Assembly of Queensland on 7 February 2004. He was the Deputy Premier of Queensland, Treasurer and Minister for State Development and Trade of the Queensland Government. On 24 March 2012, Andrew Fraser lost his seat to the LNP candidate Saxon Rice.
Kate Jennifer Jones is an Australian former politician. She served as a Labor Party Member of Parliament in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 2006 to 2012, and again from 2015 to 2020. Jones first represented the seat of Ashgrove until she was defeated by eventual Premier Campbell Newman at the 2012 state election. Jones retook the seat for the Labor Party at the 2015 state election. The seat was abolished prior to the 2017 state election, so Jones contested and won the new seat of Cooper at that election. In the Palaszczuk Government, she was the Minister for Innovation and Tourism Industry Development, Minister for State Development and the Minister for the Commonwealth Games.
The 2009 Queensland state election was held on 21 March 2009 to elect all 89 members of the Legislative Assembly, a unicameral parliament.
The 2012 Queensland state election was held on 24 March 2012 to elect all 89 members of the Legislative Assembly, a unicameral parliament.
Cameron Robert Dick is an Australian politician and member of the Labor Party who was the 36th Deputy Premier of Queensland from 2023 to 2024, 51st Treasurer of the state of Queensland from 2020 to 2024, and Minister for Trade and Investment from 2021 to 2024. He previously served as Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning and was Minister for Health and Minister for Ambulance Services in the Palaszczuk Ministry. He also served as Attorney-General, Minister for Education and Minister for Industrial Relations in the Bligh government. He is currently a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly representing the seat of Woodridge.
The 2015 Queensland state election was held on 31 January 2015 to elect all 89 members of the unicameral Legislative Assembly of Queensland.
Jacklyn Anne Trad is an Australian former politician. She was Deputy Premier of Queensland from 2015 to 2020, Treasurer of Queensland from 2017 to 2020 and represented the Electoral district of South Brisbane for the Labor Party from April 2012 to October 2020.
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.
Steven John Miles is an Australian politician who was the 40th premier of Queensland, in office for 10 months from 2023 to 2024. He is the state leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and previously served as deputy premier from 2020 to 2023.
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.
Amy MacMahon is an Australian politician and sociologist. She was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland representing South Brisbane for the Queensland Greens. She has a PhD in sociology and worked as a teacher and lecturer before entering politics.
| General elections | |
|---|---|
| Local elections | |
| Mayoral elections | |
| Referendums | |
| |
