A by-election was held for the seat of
South Brisbane
South Brisbane is an inner southern Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , South Brisbane had a population of 7,196 people.
Geography
The suburb is on the southern bank of the Brisba ...
in the
Legislative Assembly of Queensland
The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembl ...
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
Jacklyn Anne Trad (born 25 April 1972) is a former Australian politician. She was Deputy Premier of Queensland from 2015 to 2020, Treasurer of Queensland from 2017 to 2020 and represented the Electoral district of South Brisbane for the Labor ...
retained the seat for the
Labor Party.
Background
Anna Bligh first entered the
Parliament of Queensland as the Labor member for the seat of
South Brisbane
South Brisbane is an inner southern Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , South Brisbane had a population of 7,196 people.
Geography
The suburb is on the southern bank of the Brisba ...
at the
1995 state election. She became leader of the party and
Premier of Queensland
The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland.
By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the unicameral Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is ap ...
following the resignation of
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 ...
in 2007.
Bligh retained her seat at the
2012 state election with a 38.6 percent primary vote, a reduction of 9.8 points, and 55.0 percent of the
two-party preferred
In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP) is the result of an election or opinion poll after preferences have been distributed to the highest two candidates, who in some cases can be independents. For the purposes of TPP, ...
vote, a reduction of 10.0 points. Statewide, Labor suffered a landslide defeat retaining only seven of 89 seats. Bligh immediately resigned as both premier and party leader, and on 30 March 2012 resigned from Parliament.
Dates
Bligh intended the resignation to be timed so as to allow a by-election to be held on 28 April 2012, the same day as
local government
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-l ...
elections, but said she would understand if the new government chose a different day.
Later, a question emerged over whether her resignation could be effective on 30 March as she was not formally in possession of the seat.
But on 2 April, she was declared the winner, and a
writ
In common law, a writ (Anglo-Saxon ''gewrit'', Latin ''breve'') is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court. Warrants, prerogative writs, subpoenas, a ...
was subsequently issued for the by-election.
Candidates
The declared candidates, in ballot paper order, were as follows:
* Candidate contested South Brisbane at the 2012 state election.
The LNP candidate was Clem Grehan who stood against Bligh at the general election when he substantially slashed her majority. Grehan gained further ground in the by-election but was not enough to win the seat.
Despite coming close to winning South Brisbane in this by-election he did not run again for the LNP in the seat at the 2015 election.
Results
The results of the election were:
See also
*
List of Queensland state by-elections
The following is a list of state by-elections for the Queensland Legislative Assembly held in the Australian state of Queensland:
2020–2029
2010–2019
2000–2009
1990–1999
1980–1989
1970–1979
1960–1969
1950–1959
194 ...
References
{{Queensland elections
2012 elections in Australia
Queensland state by-elections
2010s in Brisbane