A by-election was held 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 ...

seat of Surfers Paradise on 5 May 2001. It was triggered by the resignation of sitting National Party member

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 ...

. The by-election was won by

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

candidate

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 ...

Background

first entered parliament as 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, ce ...

member for Surfers Paradise at the 1980 state election. He became leader of his party in 1991 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 ...

in 1996, following the Mundingburra by-election. Borbidge's government was defeated at the 1998 state election, but Borbidge remained National Party leader, leading his party to landslide defeat at the 2001 state election. Subsequent to that defeat, Borbidge announced his retirement from politics.

Results

The by-election was a resounding win for

Gold Coast City The City of Gold Coast is the local government area spanning the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia and surrounding areas. With a population of 606,774 it is the second most populous local government area in Australia (City of Brisbane being th ...

councillor Lex Bell. Also of note was the performance of the Liberal Party, who performed considerably better than their

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 ...

partner, the National Party; even though this had been a National Party seat since 1980. However, voters were outraged at being forced to the polls for the second time in three months, and took out their anger on Borbidge's replacement as National candidate Susie Douglas; the Nationals' primary vote plunged to only eight percent. After this election, the Nationals effectively ceded Surfers Paradise to the Liberals, and would never contest the seat again before the merger of the Queensland National and Liberal parties into the Liberal National Party.

Aftermath

was defeated by Liberal candidate

John-Paul Langbroek John-Paul Honoré Langbroek (born 31 January 1961) is an Australian politician who has been a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland representing the centre-right Liberal Party and its successor, the centre-right Liberal National Part ...

in a rematch at the 2004 state election.

References

* {{Qld by-elections 50th parl 2001 elections in Australia Queensland state by-elections 2000s in Queensland May 2001 events in Australia

Background

Results

Aftermath

See also

References