Parliament of Queensland, Legislative Assembly election

* Party did not contest previous election or did not meet criteria for listing, or contested previous election under a different party name.

Notes

Premier in office at election: Premier Bligh was first commissioned as Premier on 13 September 2007 and had been returned as Premier of an Australian Labor Party majority government at the Legislative Assembly election held in March 2009. At the 2012 Assembly election (this election), the Labor Party lost more than 80 percent of its seats in a landslide to the Liberal National Party. Premier Bligh was successful in retaining her electoral district of South Brisbane but, in the wake of the defeat of her government, chose to resign her seat.

Premier in office after election: As leader of the Liberal National Party which had won a large majority at the election, Newman was commissioned as Premier of an interim ministry of three members on 26 March 2012. Premier Newman had not held a seat in the Legislative Assembly, but won the seat of Ashgrove at this election (see note, below).

Liberal National Party: In July 2008, the Liberal Party and the National Party in Queensland agreed to merge to form a new party to contest state elections, the Liberal National Party. The merger was approved by the membership of both parties at separate state party conventions; the new party was led by the former parliamentary leader of the Queensland National Party, Lawrence Springborg until 2009 and then, from 2009 to 2011, by John-Paul Langbroek, a former member of the Liberal Party. Langbroek resigned from the leadership in March 2011 and Campbell Newman was elected as Party leader even though he did not hold a seat in the Legislative Assembly until the general election of 2012 (this election). During this period, Jeff Seeney acted as interim parliamentary leader.

Katter's Australian Party: Bob Katter, a former National Party member of the Queensland Assembly (1974-1992), and a member of the House of Representatives since 1993, applied in 2011 to register the party name 'Katter's Australian Party' for both federal and state elections. Although originally elected to the House of Representatives as a member of the National Party for the electoral district of Kennedy in 1993, he resigned from the Party and successfully contested the four federal elections from 2001 to 2010 as an Independent. Katter's Australian Party was registered in Queensland for the 2012 Legislative Assembly election, with the registered abbreviation 'The Australian Party' to appear on ballot papers. On the eve of the 2012 Assembly election, the Party sought to change its previously agreed upon abbreviation to include Katter's name but a legal challenge failed. This database uses the full name of the party.

Katter's Australian Party fielded 76 candidates at this Queensland Assembly election (2012) of whom 2 were elected for the electoral districts of Dalrymple and Mount Isa.

Independents: The vote shown for Independents at this Queensland Legislative Assembly election in the table above is the sum of votes cast for all candidates who ran for office without a registered party name and who can be regarded as Independents. This excludes 9 candidates who ran as candidates for unregistered parties (see note below). There were 34 Independent candidates, two of whom were elected (both were sitting members): Elizabeth Cunningham (electoral district of Gladstone), and Peter Wellington (electoral district of Nicklin). Note that the Electoral Commission of Queensland regarded all candidates who did not run for registered parties as 'other candidates' -- 43 candidates with a total vote of 77,249 votes.

Unregistered parties: Only a registered party could have the party name listed on the ballot paper at this election (see the note on 'Independents', above, and the Electoral Commission of Queensland for the rules governing party registration). But four small unregistered parties ran one or more candidates at this election under a party label; the North Queensland Party (3 candidates), the Socialist Alliance (3 candidates), the Queensland Party (2 candidates), and the Democratic Labor Party (1 candidate): their vote shares are listed in the table above. The compilers of this Database are grateful to Antony Green of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for alerting us to the existence of these parties (see 'Sources' below).

References: For a summary description of this election, see Paul D Williams, 'Queensland', Australian Journal of Politics and History, Australian Political Chronicles, January to June 2012, 58 (4) December 2012: 638-645.

Sources

Electoral Commission of Queensland website, 2012 State General Election - Election Summary:
https://bit.ly/2uvMvwT [accessed 7 May 2012]

The names of unlisted parties are taken from Antony Green's listing of 'Party Totals' for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:
https://ab.co/2uvj12h [accessed 12 April 2012]