2009 Queensland State Election
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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 Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
government led by
Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...
Anna Bligh Anna Maria Bligh (born 14 July 1960) 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 Australian Labor Party (Queensland Branch), Labor Party. ...
defeat the
Liberal National Party of Queensland 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. In most other states ...
led by
Opposition Leader The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...
Lawrence Springborg Lawrence James Springborg (born 17 February 1968) 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 ...
, 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. This was the first election contested by the LNP following its creation with the merger of the
National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...
and Liberal parties. 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.


Background

The Labor Party, led by
Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...
Anna Bligh Anna Maria Bligh (born 14 July 1960) 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 Australian Labor Party (Queensland Branch), Labor Party. ...
, and the LNP, led by
Opposition Leader The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...
Lawrence Springborg Lawrence James Springborg (born 17 February 1968) 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 ...
, 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 National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...
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 Ronan Oliver Lee (born 4 January 1976) is an Irish Australian former politician and research fellow in the at . He was previously a visiting scholar at Queen Mary University of London's International State Crime Initiative. His research focuss ...
joined the Greens in 2008, thus becoming their parliamentary leader. Lee lost his seat at the election. 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 A majority government is a government by one or more governing parties that hold an absolute majority of seats in a legislature. Such a government can consist of one party that holds a majority on its own, or be a coalition government of multi ...
, which equated to an unchanged uniform 8.3 percent
two party preferred In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP), is the result of an opinion poll or a projection of an election result where preferences are distributed to one of the two major parties, the Labor Party and the Liberal/Natio ...
swing. Former Premier
Peter Beattie Peter Douglas Beattie (born 18 November 1952) is an Australian former politician who served as the 36th Premier of Queensland, in office from 1998 to 2007. He was the state leader of the Labor Party from 1996 to 2007. Beattie was born in Syd ...
resigned in September 2007, which triggered the October 2007 Brisbane Central by-election.


Key dates


Electoral redistribution

A redistribution of electoral boundaries occurred in 2008. The electorates of
Charters Towers Charters Towers is a rural town in the Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia. It is by road south-west from Townsville on the Flinders Highway. During the last quarter of the 19th century, the town boomed as the rich gold deposits und ...
,
Cunningham Cunningham is a surname of Scottish origin, see Clan Cunningham. Notable people sharing this surname A–C *Aaron Cunningham (born 1986), American baseball player * Abe Cunningham, American drummer *Adrian Cunningham (born 1960), Australian ...
,
Darling Downs The Darling Downs is a farming region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland, Australia. The Downs are to the west of South East Queensland and are one of the major regions of Queensland. The name was generally ...
, Fitzroy, Kurwongbah,
Mount Gravatt Mount Gravatt is a southern Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb of the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and a prominent hill and lookout within this suburb (). In the , Mount Gravatt had a population of 3,733 people. Geography T ...
, Robina, and Tablelands were abolished. The electorates of
Buderim Buderim ( ) is a town in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It sits on a mountain which overlooks the southern Sunshine Coast communities. The name "Buderim" is usually believed to be derived from a local Gubbi Gubbi people, ...
, Condamine, Coomera, Dalrymple,
Mermaid Beach Mermaid Beach is a coastal suburb of the City of Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. In the , Mermaid Beach had a population of 7,329 people. Nobby Beach is a neighbourhood in the south of the suburb (). Geography The suburb is bounded to ...
, Morayfield,
Pine Rivers The Shire of Pine Rivers was a local government area about north of Brisbane in the Moreton Bay region of South East Queensland, Australia. The shire covered an area of , and existed as a local government entity from 1888 until 2008, when it a ...
, and Sunnybank were created. The redistribution merged Charters Towers with Tablelands to create the notionally National-held Dalrymple, Fitzroy into Mirani, and Cunningham with Darling Downs to create the notionally National-held Condamine, all in regional Queensland. Notionally Liberal-held Buderim was created on the Sunshine Coast, notionally Labor-held Morayfield in the corridor north of Brisbane, and notionally Labor-held Coomera was created on the Gold Coast. Kurwongbah was renamed Pine Rivers, Mount Gravatt was renamed Sunnybank, and Robina was renamed Mermaid Beach. Burdekin, Clayfield, and Mirani became notionally Labor-held, while Glass House became notionally National-held. The changes resulted in 62 notionally Labor-held seats, 8 notionally Liberal-held seats, 15 notionally National-held seats, and 4 notionally Independent-held seats. All Liberal-held and National-held seats became Liberal National-held seats.


Retiring members


Labor

* Chris Bombolas MP ( Chatsworth) - Announced 19 February 2009 * Gary Fenlon MP ( Greenslopes) - Announced 15 February 2009 * Ken Hayward MP ( Kallangur) * Linda Lavarch MP ( Kurwongbah) * Jim Pearce MP ( Fitzroy) * Warren Pitt MP ( Mulgrave) - Announced 17 February 2009 * Pat Purcell MP (
Bulimba Bulimba is a suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Bulimba had a population of 7,623 people. Geography Bulimba is located north-east of the CBD on the southern bank of the Brisbane River, but it is by road. Top ...
) * Mike Reynolds MP (
Townsville The City of Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 201,313 as of 2024, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland and Northern Australia (specifically, the parts of Australia north of ...
) - Announced 15 February 2009 *
Rod Welford Rodney Jon (Rod) Welford (born 30 September 1958) is an Australian former politician from Queensland. He served as a Labor Party Member of Parliament in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1989 to 2009. Early life Welford was born in ...
MP ( Everton)


Liberal National

* Kev Lingard MP ( Beaudesert)


Results


Seats changing hands

* 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. * The Liberal National Party retained the seat of Glass House which had a notional Liberal National margin.


Post-election pendulum


Subsequent changes

* On 5 May 2010,
Aidan McLindon Aidan Patrick McLindon (born 26 February 1980) 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 p ...
( Beaudesert) and Rob Messenger ( Burnett) resigned from the Liberal National Party. On 11 October 2011, Aidan McLindon joined
Katter's Australian Party Katter's Australian Party (KAP) is an agrarian populist political party in Australia that advocates for agrarian socialist economic policies and conservative social policies. It was founded by Bob Katter, an independent and former National ...
. * On 31 October 2011, Shane Knuth ( Dalrymple) resigned from the Liberal National Party and joined the
Katter's Australian Party Katter's Australian Party (KAP) is an agrarian populist political party in Australia that advocates for agrarian socialist economic policies and conservative social policies. It was founded by Bob Katter, an independent and former National ...
.


Polling

Newspoll Newspoll is an Australian opinion polling brand, published by ''The Australian'' and administered by Australian polling firm Pyxis Polling & Insights. Pyxis is founded by the team led by Dr Campbell White, who redesigned Newspoll's methodology ...
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 The margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in the results of a Statistical survey, survey. The larger the margin of error, the less confidence one should have that a poll result would reflect the result of ...
at around ±3 percent.


See also

* Candidates of the 2009 Queensland state election *
Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 2006–2009 Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...
*
Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 2009–2012 Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...
* 2009 Liberal National Party of Queensland leadership election


Notes


References


External links


Electoral Commission Queensland

2009 Queensland election - Antony Green ABC
{{Queensland elections 2009 elections in Australia Elections in Queensland 2000s in Queensland March 2009 in Australia