Leslie James Scott (born 18 October 1947) was a

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

member of the

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for the

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_ ...

Division of Oxley The Division of Oxley is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland. It is currently represented by Milton Dick , the current Speaker of the House of Representatives Geography Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australi ...

from 8 October 1988 to 2 March 1996. He originally won his seat in a

1988 by-election File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

after sitting member and former ALP leader

Bill Hayden William George Hayden (born 23 January 1933) is an Australian politician who served as the 21st governor-general of Australia from 1989 to 1996. He was Leader of the Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1977 to 1983, and served as ...

was promoted from the

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. Scott was defeated at the 1996 election by controversial independent

Pauline Hanson Pauline Lee Hanson (''née'' Seccombe, formerly Zagorski; born 27 May 1954) is an Australian politician who is the founder and leader of One Nation, a right-wing populist political party. Hanson has represented Queensland in the Australian ...

, who had originally been his

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opponent before she was disendorsed for making racially offensive remarks that indigenous Australians were given preferential treatment over non-indigenous Australians. Scott only garnered 39 percent on the first count, and ultimately lost on the sixth count with 45 percent of the two-candidate vote to Hanson's 54 percent—a 19.3 percent swing. Even considering Labor's severe defeat in that election and near-meltdown in Queensland in particular (Labor lost all but two seats in Queensland), Scott's defeat was a considerable upset. Going into the election, Oxley had been the safest Labor seat in Queensland, with a 12.6 percent two-party majority. Had Hanson still been running as a Liberal, Scott would have suffered the largest two-party swing of the election. Scott considered legally challenging Hanson's victory over him, since she was still listed as a Liberal even after her disendorsement. However, this did not eventuate. While his defeat at the 1996 election marked Scott's political retirement, his wife Anne made an unsuccessful attempt to gain ALP preselection for Oxley for the 1998 election. Les and Anne are now running Les Scott and Associates, a finance consulting service which they established in 1999.

References

Living people 1947 births Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Oxley Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia 20th-century Australian politicians {{Australia-Labor-representative-stub