The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland. Elections are held every four years. Voting is by the full-preferential voting form of the alternative vote system. The Assembly has 93 members, who have used the letters MP after their names since 2000.
The Labor Party (ALP), led by PremierAnna Bligh, was defeated by the opposition Liberal National Party (LNP), led by Campbell Newman. It is only the sixth time that Queenslanders have ousted a sitting government since 1915. The ALP was attempting to win a ninth consecutive election victory, having won every general election since 1989 although it was out of office between 1996 and 1998. Katter's Australian Party contested its first election. Before the election, it held two seats whose members had been elected as LNP candidates.
The Australian Labor Party , commonly known as Queensland Labor is the Queensland branch of the Australian Labor Party.
The Premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland.
Anna Maria Bligh is a former Australian politician who served as the 37th Premier of Queensland, in office from 2007 to 2012 as leader of the Labor Party. She was the first woman to hold either position.
Labor suffered one of the worst defeats of a state government since Federation, and the worst defeat of a sitting government in Queensland history. From 51 seats in 2009, it was reduced to only seven seats, suffering a swing of 15.6 percentage points. The LNP won a majority for the first time in its history, jumping from 34 seats to 78 seats to win the largest majority government in Queensland history. It was the first outright non-Labor majority since the Queensland Nationals won their last victory in 1986. Katter's Australian Party won two seats, though leader Aidan McLindon lost his own seat. The remaining two seats were taken by independents. Newman took office two days after the election.
The National Party, known as the Country Party until 1974, was a political party in Queensland, Australia, for much of the period from 1915 until 2008. Formed by the Queensland Farmers' Union and serving as the state branch of the National Party of Australia, it initially sought to represent the interests of the farmers but over time became a more general conservative political party in the state, leading to much debate about relations with other conservative parties and a string of mergers that were soon undone. From 1957 it held power as part of a coalition with the state Liberal Party until 1983 when the Liberals broke away and the Nationals continued to govern in their own right until defeat in 1989. The party formed another coalition with the Liberals that took power in 1996 but was defeated in 1998. After a further decade in opposition the two parties merged to form the Liberal National Party of Queensland.
The estimated two-party preferred result was 37.2% for Labor and 62.8% for the LNP, a swing of 13.7% from Labor's result of 2009.[2]
The LNP had been unbackable favourites to win the election. By the time the writs were dropped, they had led opinion polling for over a year, and had been ahead of Labor on all but one Newspoll since 2010.
The LNP swept Labor from power in a massive landslide, taking 78 seats to Labor's seven on a two-party-preferred swing of 13.7 points away from Labor. The 44-seat loss is double the 22-seat loss suffered by the Nationals in the 1989 election, the previous record for the worst defeat of a sitting government in Queensland history. The 13.7-percent swing is one of the largest against a sitting state government in Australia since World War II.
In the process, the LNP won many seats considered Labor heartland. It broke Labor's longstanding grip on Brisbane, taking all but three of the city's 40 seats, some on swings of 10 points or more. By comparison, Labor went into the election holding all but six seats in the capital, which had been its power base for over 20 years. In every election since the "one vote one value" reforms of the Goss government, Labor had won at least 30 seats in Brisbane. The LNP also won every seat on the Gold Coast while strengthening its hold on its traditional heartlands in provincial and rural Queensland. Ten members of Bligh's cabinet were defeated. Newman won Ashgrove handily, defeating Labor's Kate Jones on a 13-point swing, almost double the 7-point swing he needed to take the seat off Labor.
Wayne Keith Goss was Premier of Queensland, Australia, from 7 December 1989 until 19 February 1996, becoming the first Labor Premier in over 32 years. Prior to entering politics, Goss was a solicitor, and after leaving politics he served as Chairman of the Queensland Art Gallery and Chairman of Deloitte Australia.
The Gold Coast is a coastal city in the Australian state of Queensland, approximately 66 kilometres (41 mi) south-southeast of the state capital Brisbane and immediately north of the border with New South Wales. With a census-estimated 2016 population of 638,090, the Gold Coast is the sixth-largest city in Australia, making it the largest non-capital city, and Queensland's second-largest city.
Kate Jennifer Jones is an Australian politician and Queensland Government minister. She is a member of the Labor Party and was elected to the seat of Ashgrove in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland in 2006, which was previously held by former Speaker Jim Fouras (ALP). She was the Minister for Environment, Resource Management and Climate Change until 19 June 2011. She lost the seat to Campbell Newman in 2012, who went on to become premier, before retaking it in 2015. The seat was abolished prior to the 2017 election, so Jones contested and won the new seat of Cooper. In the Palaszczuk Government, she is the Minister for Innovation and Tourism Industry Development and the Minister for the Commonwealth Games.
ABC News called the election for the LNP at 6:48 pm Queensland time, less than an hour after counting began. Bligh conceded defeat at 8:25 pm, and Newman publicly claimed victory 20 minutes later.[3]
The day after the election, Bligh resigned as premier and Queensland Labor leader. She also announced she was resigning from parliament on 30 March and retiring from politics, triggering a by-election in her seat of South Brisbane.[4][5] An hour later, Newman, who at the time did not know that Bligh had resigned, announced that he would be sworn in as premier on 26 March, heading an interim three-man cabinet composed of himself, Seeney and Tim Nicholls. Although Newman's victory was beyond doubt, counting was still under way in some seats.[6] Bligh handed in her resignation later on the afternoon of 25 March, but remained as caretaker until Newman was sworn in the next day.
Labor was reduced to its smallest presence in the legislature on record, outdoing its previous low in 1974, when it was cut down to a "cricket team" of only 11 members at the height of Joh Bjelke-Petersen's power. Indeed, Michael Madigan of The Courier-Mail wrote that Labor had been reduced to a "water polo squad."[7]
Although Labor came up two seats short of official party status in the legislature, Newman promised that Labor would be "properly resourced as an opposition".[8]
Summary of Assembly results
Popular vote
Liberal National
49.66%
Labor
26.66%
Katter's Australia Party
11.53%
Independent
3.16%
Others
8.99%
% of the seats won
Liberal National
87.64%
Labor
7.86%
Katter's Australia Party
2.25%
Independent
2.25%
Seats changing hands
Labor lost 44 seats, all but one to the LNP. Katter's Australia Party took the other, but lost its leader's seat to the LNP, which also gained three seats formerly held by independents.
Candidates in italics did not contest their seat at this election.
1 Aidan McLindon was elected as a member of the LNP in 2009, but he quit the party to form the Queensland Party in 2010, then merged his party with Katter's Australian Party in 2011. 2 Rob Messenger was elected as a member of the LNP in 2009, but quit the party to become an independent in 2010.
Campbell Newman was elected leader of the LNP in early 2011 while he was the Lord Mayor of Brisbane. Standard practice calls for an MP from a safe seat to resign so that a newly elected leader can get into parliament via a by-election, though this is not universally followed. However, when Newman won the leadership in 2011, a by-election could not be arranged.[9] For this reason, Jeff Seeney was elected as interim parliamentary leader of the LNP and Leader of the Opposition. Newman led the LNP election team from outside of parliament, often sitting at the galleries, and simultaneously contested the seat of Ashgrove as the LNP candidate.[10]
Date
In Queensland, a parliamentary term is a maximum of three years, measured from the day set for the return of the electoral writs. The previous state election was held on 21 March 2009 to elect the 89 members of the Legislative Assembly.
Section 80 of the Queensland 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 enroll or to notify the Electoral Commission of Queensland of any changes in their place of residence.[11]
The Constitution Act Amendment Act 1890 provides that the Legislative Assembly continues for (up to) three years from the day set for the return of writs for the previous election, after which time the Legislative Assembly lapses.[12] The day set for the return of writs for the 2009 election was 20 April 2009.[13] The Electoral Act requires the Governor to issue writs for a general election "not later than 4 days after the day on which the Legislative Assembly is dissolved or expires by the passage of time" (section 78(2)). The last possible day for the next election was therefore a Saturday not more than 56 days beyond four days after the expiry of the Legislative Assembly on 24 April 2012, namely, 16 June 2012.
In choosing 24 March, Bligh made the unusual step of announcing the election date two months prior. Bligh was criticised for selecting a date which required the postponement of local government elections.[14] Bligh has said that date allowed Queenslanders to view the final report of the Commission of Inquiry into the 2010–11 Queensland floods before they vote.[15] Normal practice in Australia is for parliament to be dissolved at the time of the election announcement. However, Bligh did not formally ask GovernorPenelope Wensley to dissolve Parliament until 19 February. Wensley granted the request, formally beginning the 35-day campaign.[16] By not asking for a dissolution in January, Bligh avoided placing the government in caretaking mode for 25 days.[15]
A total of six Queensland registered political parties contested the election. The two major parties, the ALP and LNP (each contesting all 89 seats), The Greens (89 seats), Katter's Australian Party (76 seats), Family First (38 seats) and One Nation (6 seats). In addition to the above parties, 43 Independent or non-aligned candidates contested the election. Of the 43 candidates, several contested on behalf of unregistered parties, namely: Socialist Alliance (3 seats), North Queensland Party (3 seats), Queensland Party (2 seats), Democratic Labor Party (1 seat) and Middle Australian Party (1 seat).
Disendorsed candidates
The Liberal National Party disendorsed two candidates for the Gold Coast seat of Broadwater. Richard Townson was caught drink driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.07 when he was in a police random breath test. Cameron Caldwell was disendorsed when he confirmed he had attended a Gold Coast swingers' club.[25]
The Australian Labor Party disendorsed candidate Peter Watson for the seat of Southern Downs and expelled him from the party for making racist and homophobic remarks online.[26]
Katter appeal on ballot papers
On 2 March 2012, Katter's Australian Party sought an injunction in the Supreme Court of Queensland to have more than 2 million ballot papers shredded and reprinted. The party said the Queensland Electoral Commission used the party's abbreviated name, "The Australian Party", instead of its registered name, "Katter's Australian Party (Qld Division)", which the party claimed could confuse voters.[27] Bligh said that her lawyers had advised her to reschedule the election if Katter's challenge succeeded.[28]
On 7 March, Supreme Court Justice Roslyn Atkinson referred the matter to the Queensland Court of Appeal as matters of constitutional law in the case were outside her jurisdiction.[29] The Court of Appeal rejected the constitutional arguments and dismissed the appeal the following day.[30]
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.
Campbell Kevin Thomas Newman is a former Australian politician who served as the 38th Premier of Queensland from 26 March 2012 to 14 February 2015. Newman served as the Member for Ashgrove in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland between March 2012 and 31 January 2015. He was the Leader of the Liberal National Party (LNP) from 2 April 2011 to 7 February 2015, and was the 15th Lord Mayor of Brisbane from 27 March 2004 to 3 April 2011.
Lawrence James Springborg is a former 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.
The Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP) is a 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 operate as a more or less permanent Coalition. The LNP is a full member of the Liberal Party of Australia, and has observer status within the National Party of Australia.
The Queensland Greens is a Green party in the Australian state of Queensland, and a member of the federation of the Australian Greens. The Greens were first founded in Queensland as the Brisbane Green Party in late 1984 about a month after the Sydney Greens. The Brisbane Green Party contested the March 1985 Brisbane City Council elections with four ward candidates and Drew Hutton as mayoral candidate. Hutton received 4 per cent across the city and the ward candidates received approximately 7-10 per cent. Some time after the collapse of the Brisbane Greens, a Green Independent campaign stood a further range of candidates in the Queensland state election, 1989.
Annastacia Palaszczuk is an Australian politician and 39th Premier of Queensland, serving since the 2015 election. She has been a Labor member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland since the 2006 election, representing the electorate of Inala. She held various ministerial portfolios in the Bligh Labor government from 2009. Following Labor's defeat in the 2012 election, Palaszczuk succeeded Bligh as leader of Queensland Labor. After the defeat of the Newman LNP government in 2015, Palaszczuk became the first woman in Australia to become Premier of a state from Opposition. Her first ministry was majority female, a first in Australia.
Robert Desmond Messenger is an Australian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland representing the Electoral district of Burnett. Originally a member of the Queensland branch of the Nationals, he became a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland when that party was formed from the union of the Queensland branches of the National Party and the Liberal Party in 2008. He resigned from the Liberal Nationals in 2010 and became an Independent. He lost his seat to the LNP at the 2012 election. Since then he has been involved in the Palmer United Party and was an adviser to Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie.
Redcliffe is a Legislative Assembly of Queensland electoral division in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Ferny Grove is one of the 89 electoral districts for the Legislative Assembly of Queensland in Australia. Located in northwest Brisbane, it is named for the suburb of Ferny Grove. It was first created in 1992, and was represented by Labor from its creation until the 2012 election, in which the LNP won with a 59.5 percent two-party vote.
The Queensland state election was held to elect members to the unicameral Parliament of Queensland on 21 March 2009. 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.
Scott Anthony Emerson is a former Australian politician. 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.
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. He joined Family First in June 2013 and was the lead Senate candidate for Family First in Queensland. McLindon established an independent political consultancy, AMac Consultants Pty Ltd, following the 2013 federal election. He is no longer affiliated to any political party.
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.
Katter's Australian Party (KAP) is a political party in Australia. It was formed by the independent and former Nationals Member of Parliament for Kennedy, Bob Katter, with a registration application lodged to the Australian Electoral Commission in 2011. Katter has been the party's federal parliamentary leader since that time, while his son Robbie is the leader in Queensland.
The 2015 Queensland state election was held on 31 January 2015 to elect all 89 members of the unicameral Legislative Assembly of Queensland.
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.
A by-election for the Queensland Legislative Assembly seat of Redcliffe took place on 22 February 2014. Yvette D'Ath won the seat for Labor.
A by-election was conducted for the Queensland Legislative Assembly seat of Stafford on 19 July 2014 following 23 May resignation of LNP MP Chris Davis. The LNP won Stafford from Labor at the 2012 election with 57.1 percent of the two-party vote from a 14.4-point two-party swing. The 2014 Redcliffe by-election saw a 17.2-point two-party swing to Labor. Analysts predicted a Labor win with a 10–12-point two-party swing. Labor candidate Anthony Lynham won the by-election with a 62 percent two-party vote from a 19.1-point two-party swing.
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.
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