An election was held in the

Australian state The states and territories are federated administrative divisions in Australia, ruled by regional governments that constitute the second level of governance between the federal government and local governments. States are self-governing ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

on 17 February 2001 to elect the 89 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. The result of the election was the return of the Labor Party (ALP) government of 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 Australian Labor Party (Queensland Branch), Labor Party ...

, with an increased majority. Labor won 66 seats, easily the most it has ever won in Queensland and one of Labor's best-ever results nationwide. There was a 10.07% swing towards Labor, while One Nation suffered a 13.98% swing against it, losing eight seats (five of which were held by the newly formed

City Country Alliance The City Country Alliance (CCA, initially One Nation Queensland) was a short-lived Australian political party, operating exclusively in Queensland, that briefly held six Queensland state parliamentary seats. It was founded in the wake of Paulin ...

after an internal split in December 1999). The longstanding coalition between the Nationals and Liberals, led by Nationals leader (and former premier)

Rob Borbidge Robert Edward Borbidge (born 12 August 1954) is a former Australian politician who served as the 35th Premier of Queensland from 1996 to 1998. He was the leader of the Queensland branch of the National Party, and was the last member of that p ...

recorded only a 2.39% swing against it. However, its support in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

all but vanished; it was reduced to only one seat in the capital. Largely due to losses in Brisbane, the Coalition suffered an overall 17-seat loss. This included only three seats for the Liberals, easily the worst showing for the urban non-Labor party in Queensland since it adopted the Liberal banner in 1948. The 'Just Vote 1' strategy adopted by the Labor campaign (capitalising on Queensland's

optional preferential voting One of the ways in which ranked voting systems vary is whether an individual vote must express a minimum number of preferences to avoid being considered invalid ("spoiled" or "informal"). Possibilities are: * Full preferential voting (FPV) requir ...

system) was also considered to be effective in reducing preference flows between the Coalition parties, thereby dampening the combined strength of the conservative parties.

Key dates

Results

Seats changing hands

Candidates listed in italics did not contest their seat at this election. ¹Candidates Black, Dalgleish, Feldman, Paff and Prenzler were all elected as

One Nation Party Pauline Hanson's One Nation (PHON or ONP), also known as One Nation or One Nation Party, is a right-wing populist political party in Australia. It is led by Pauline Hanson. One Nation had electoral success in the late 1990s, before suffer ...

MLAs, but abandoned that party to form the

in December 1999. ²

Shaun Nelson Shaun Christopher Nelson (born 22 March 1973) is an Australian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1998 to 2001, representing the electorate of Tablelands. He was elected as one of 11 MPs of the One Na ...

was elected as a

MLA in 1998, but left that party in February 1999 to sit as an independent. ³ Ken Turner was elected as a

MLA in 1998, but left that party in 1999 to sit as an independent.

Post-election pendulum

Subsequent changes

*After losing the election, Opposition Leader

( Surfers Paradise) resigned his position as Leader of the Nationals and his seat. In the resulting by-election, held on 5 May 2001, Surfers Paradise was won by

Lex Bell Alexander James Douglas "Lex" Bell OAM (born 13 July 1945) is an Australian politician. Born in Brisbane, he received a Master of Laws from Bond University and a Bachelor of Law from the University of Queensland before becoming a solicitor o ...

, an independent former mayor. Borbidge was replaced as Nationals leader by

Mike Horan Michael James Horan, AM (born 1 July 1944) is a former Australian politician who represented the seat of Toowoomba South in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 18 May 1991 to 24 March 2012. Originally he was a member of the National P ...

( Toowoomba South), who in turn was replaced by

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 ...

(

Southern 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 general ...

) in February 2003. *Dr David Watson (

Moggill Moggill is a suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Moggill had a population of 4,641 people. Geography Moggill is about by from the Brisbane GPO. The Brisbane River bounds the suburb to the east, south and west w ...

) resigned as Leader of the Liberal Party in favour of Bob Quinn ( Robina) on 28 February 2001. *

Ray Hopper Raymond Gordon Hopper (born 3 March 1960) is a former Australian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 2001 to 2015. Originally elected as the member for Darling Downs as an independent in 2001, he joined th ...

(

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 generall ...

), after being elected as an Independent, joined the National Party in December 2001. *On 18 April 2002, Elisa Roberts (

Gympie Gympie ( ) is a city and a Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Gympie Region, Queensland, Australia. In the Wide Bay-Burnett District, Gympie is about north of the state capital, Brisbane. The city lies on the Mary River (Queen ...

) resigned from the One Nation Party and sat as an Independent, reducing that party's total to two seats. *On 23 March 2003, John Kingston ( Maryborough), a former member of One Nation now sitting as an independent, resigned his seat. Chris Foley, another independent, won the by-election on 8 May.

Key dates

Results

Seats changing hands

Post-election pendulum

Subsequent changes

References

See also