Division of Brisbane

Brisbane
Australian House of Representatives Division
Map
Map
Interactive map of boundaries
Created1901
MPStephen Bates
PartyGreens
NamesakeBrisbane
Electors125,241 (2022)
Area57 km2 (22.0 sq mi)
DemographicInner metropolitan

The Division of Brisbane is an Australian electoral division in the state of Queensland.

The electorate has had a large number of openly gay candidates over the years. In 2016, both major parties (the LNP and the Labor Party) fielded an openly gay candidate for the first time in Australian history. In 2022, the Greens candidate Stephen Bates, an openly gay man, defeated incumbent LNP member Trevor Evans, who is also gay.

History

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The city of Brisbane, the division's namesake (pictured August 2012)

The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 65 divisions to be contested at the first federal election. It is named after the city of Brisbane.

It was in Labor hands for all but five years from 1931 to 2010, and for most of that time was a marginal Labor seat. However, a redistribution ahead of the 2010 election pushed the seat into more conservative-leaning territory east of Breakfast Creek. This helped Liberal Party challenger Teresa Gambaro take the seat from Labor incumbent Arch Bevis, marking the first time in over a century that Labor had been in government without holding Brisbane. She was re-elected in 2013 with an increased majority.

Gambaro did not re-contest the seat at the 2016 election. The contest was historic in that it was the first Australian federal election where both major party candidates in a lower house seat contest were openly gayTrevor Evans for the Liberal Nationals and Pat O'Neill for Labor.[1] Evans retained the seat for the LNP. Evans was re-elected in 2019 despite being the only incumbent Liberal National MP to suffer a swing against them at that election.

The seat of Brisbane has a growing Greens vote, with the party being only 2.12% short of overtaking the Labor Party on primary vote and thus likely entering the two-party preferred vote. The Greens won 2 booths at the 2019 federal election (Kelvin Grove and Spring Hill) and came second in a further 9 booths. The increase in the Greens vote in Brisbane has come largely at the expense of the Labor Party, with their vote having dropped by 22.47% from 1993, when the Greens first contested Brisbane, to 2019, where the Greens received 22.37% of the overall vote. In the 2022 federal election, Greens candidate Stephen Bates won the seat. The party also won the neighbouring divisions of Ryan and Griffith.[2]

Boundaries

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On its original boundaries, Brisbane covered all of what is now the northern part of the City of Brisbane, but successive boundary changes cut it back to the inner suburban area. However, between 1913 and 1949 the seat instead covered the inner south-west.

Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australian Electoral Commission. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.[3]

It now extends from the city centre into the western suburbs, and includes the Brisbane CBD, Alderley, Ashgrove, Bowen Hills, Clayfield, Enoggera, Ferny Grove, Fortitude Valley, Gaythorne, Grange, Herston, Kelvin Grove, Keperra, Milton, Mitchelton, New Farm, Newmarket, Newstead, Teneriffe, Red Hill, Spring Hill, Upper Kedron, Wilston, Windsor, Gordon Park, Wooloowin, Lutwyche, parts of Bardon, Everton Park, Paddington and Stafford.

In the 2009 redistribution announced by the Australian Electoral Commission, the suburbs of Hendra, Ascot and Hamilton were included in the seat of Brisbane.

Members

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Image Member Party Term Notes
  Thomas Macdonald-Paterson
(1844–1906)
Protectionist 30 March 1901
1903
Previously held the Legislative Assembly of Queensland seat of Brisbane North. Lost preselection and then lost seat
  Independent Protectionist 1903 –
16 December 1903
  Millice Culpin
(1846–1941)
Labour 16 December 1903
12 December 1906
Lost seat
  Justin Foxton
(1849–1916)
Anti-Socialist 12 December 1906
26 May 1909
Previously held the Legislative Assembly of Queensland seat of Carnarvon. Served as minister under Deakin. Lost seat
  Liberal 26 May 1909 –
13 April 1910
  William Finlayson
(1867–1955)
Labor 13 April 1910
13 December 1919
Lost seat. Later appointed to the Queensland Legislative Council in 1920
  Donald Cameron
(1879–1960)
Nationalist 13 December 1919
7 May 1931
Lost seat. Later elected to the Division of Lilley in 1934
  United Australia 7 May 1931 –
19 December 1931
  George Lawson
(1880–1966)
Labor 19 December 1931
2 November 1961
Previously a member of the Queensland Legislative Council. Served as minister under Curtin. Retired. Last veteran of the Second Boer War to serve in the House of Representatives
  Manfred Cross
(1929–2024)
9 December 1961
13 December 1975
Lost seat
  Peter Johnson
(1943–)
Liberal 13 December 1975
18 October 1980
Lost seat
  Manfred Cross
(1929–2024)
Labor 18 October 1980
19 February 1990
Retired
  Arch Bevis
(1955–)
24 March 1990
19 July 2010
Lost seat
  Teresa Gambaro
(1958–)
Liberal National 21 August 2010
9 May 2016
Previously held the Division of Petrie. Retired
  Trevor Evans
(1981–)
2 July 2016
21 May 2022
Lost seat
  Stephen Bates
(1992–)
Greens 21 May 2022
present
Incumbent

Election results

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2022 Australian federal election: Brisbane[4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal National Trevor Evans 41,032 37.71 −10.13
Labor Madonna Jarrett 29,652 27.25 +2.76
Greens Stephen Bates 29,641 27.24 +4.87
One Nation Trevor Hold 2,429 2.23 −0.26
Animal Justice Tiana Kennedy 2,135 1.96 +1.96
United Australia Justin Knudson 2,102 1.93 +0.54
Liberal Democrats Anthony Bull 1,807 1.66 +1.66
Total formal votes 108,798 97.92 +0.44
Informal votes 2,312 2.08 −0.44
Turnout 111,110 88.74 −1.77
Notional two-party-preferred count
Labor Madonna Jarrett 59,183 54.40 +9.32
Liberal National Trevor Evans 49,615 45.60 −9.32
Two-candidate-preferred result
Greens Stephen Bates 58,460 53.73 +53.73
Liberal National Trevor Evans 50,338 46.27 −8.65
Greens gain from Liberal National  
Primary vote results in Brisbane (Parties that did not get 5% of the vote are omitted)
  Liberal
  National
  Labor
  Greens
  Australian Democrats
Two-candidate-preferred results in Brisbane

References

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  1. ^ Brisbane - 2016 election: Antony Green ABC
  2. ^ "Australian Federal Election 2022 Live Results". abc.net.au. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  3. ^ Muller, Damon (14 November 2017). "The process of federal redistributions: a quick guide". Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  4. ^ Brisbane, QLD, 2022 Tally Room, Australian Electoral Commission.
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27°26′17″S 153°01′41″E / 27.438°S 153.028°E / -27.438; 153.028