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

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:

References

{{Queensland elections 2012 elections in Australia Queensland state by-elections 2010s in Brisbane

Background

Dates

Candidates

Results

See also

References