An
Australian by-election was held for the
Legislative Assembly of Queensland district of
Gaven
Gaven is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland. It was created out of the former district of Nerang and the southern segment of Albert in the 2001 redistribution, and encompasses the northern ...
on 1 April 2006. It was triggered by the resignation of sitting
Labor member
Robert Poole.
The by-election resulted in the Labor Party losing the seat to
National Party candidate
Alex Douglas.
Background
Robert Poole first came to parliament at the
2001 state election by winning the newly created seat of Gaven. He was subsequently re-elected at the
2004 state election. During his second term, Poole attracted criticism for the amount of time he spent in
Thailand, where his wife and children lived. Things came to a head in February 2006 when Poole announced that he'd be spending three months in Thailand to recover from knee surgery. The Opposition demanded a by-election, but Premier
Peter Beattie said he was prepared to wait until the beginning of April for Poole to return home. Poole, not prepared to return home early from his trip, announced his decision to resign his seat on 28 February 2006.
Candidates
Labor preselected
Phil Gray
Philip Gray (born 2 October 1968) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer. A striker, Gray won 26 caps for his country and played for ten professional clubs, his transfer fees totalling £1,475,000. Northern Ireland won every game Ph ...
as their candidate to defend the seat. Gray had previously been campaign manager to outgoing member Robert Poole.
The
Liberal Party—who had been the Labor Party's chief opponent in Gaven at the 2004 election—did not contest the by-election, instead deferring to the National Party due to the
coalition
A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces.
Formation
According to ''A Gui ...
agreement that the two parties not stand candidates against each other in the same seat. This attracted criticism from some from commentators who believed the Liberal Party was better placed to win the suburban seat than the rural-centric Nationals. The National Party endorsed general practitioner
Alex Douglas as its candidate.
Results
National Party candidate Alex Douglas won the seat from Labor Party. It marked the third by-election loss for Labor during the parliamentary term, following on from the 2005 losses in
Chatsworth and
Redcliffe.
Aftermath
Alex Douglas's stint in parliament would prove to be a short one. A
general election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
was called by Premier Peter Beattie later that year where Labor recouped the seat of Gaven, with Phil Gray once again their candidate.
However, the tables turned again at
2009 state election when Alex Douglas, running as a candidate for the newly formed
Liberal National Party, defeated Gray in their third contest against one another.
See also
*
List of Queensland state by-elections
References
{{Qld by-elections 51st parl
2006 elections in Australia
Queensland state by-elections
2000s in Queensland