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All 89 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland 45 Assembly seats were needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 90.93 ( 0.46 pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Winning margin by electorate. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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8
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.
This was the first election contested by the LNP following its creation with the merger of the National 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
See also: 2006 Queensland state election and Candidates of the 2009 Queensland state electionThe 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.
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.
Former Premier Peter Beattie resigned in September 2007, which triggered the October 2007 Brisbane Central by-election.
Key dates
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 23 February 2009 | Writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election. |
| 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 |
| 7 April 2009 | The writ was returned and the results formally declared |
| 12 April 2009 | 53rd Parliament convened |
Electoral redistribution
A redistribution of electoral boundaries occurred in 2008.
The electorates of Charters Towers, Cunningham, Darling Downs, Fitzroy, Kurwongbah, Mount Gravatt, Robina, and Tablelands were abolished.
The electorates of Buderim, Condamine, Coomera, Dalrymple, Mermaid Beach, Morayfield, Pine Rivers, and Sunnybank were created.
The redistribution merged Charters Towers with Tablelands to create Dalrymple, Fitzroy into Mirani, and Cunningham with Darling Downs to create Condamine, all in regional Queensland. Buderim was created on the Sunshine Coast, Morayfield in the corridor north of Brisbane, and 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 notionally became Labor-held, while Glass House notionally became 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)
- Mike Reynolds MP (Townsville) - Announced 15 February 2009
- Rod Welford MP (Everton)
Liberal National
- Kev Lingard MP (Beaudesert)
Results
Main article: Results of the 2009 Queensland state election
|
Queensland state election, 21 March 2009 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | ||||
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Seats changing hands
| Seat | 2008 Redistribution | Swing | 2009 Election | ||||||
| Party | Member | Margin | 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 Pearce | 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.
- 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 (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.
| 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% |
| Jul – Sep 2007 | 54% | 25% |
| Apr – Jun 2007 | 54% | 19% |
| Pre 2006 election | 58% | 28% |
| Pre 2004 election | 62% | 22% |
| Polling conducted by Newspoll and published in The Australian. ^ Remainder were "uncommitted" to either leader. Peter Beattie, Jeff Seeney | ||
| 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. | ||||||||||
See also
- Candidates of the Queensland state election, 2009
- Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 2006–2009
- Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 2009–2012
Notes
References
- "Queensland elects female premier". BBC News Online. 21 March 2009.
- "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.
- "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
- ECQ. "Parliament of Queensland, Assembly election, 21 March 2009". Archived from the original on 26 February 2011.
External links
 Elections and referendums in Queensland | |
|---|---|
| General elections | |
| Local elections | |
| Mayoral elections | |
| Referendums | |
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