Electoral district of Gladstone

Gladstone is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland.[1]

This article is about the Queensland state electorate. For the former South Australian state electorate, see Electoral district of Gladstone (South Australia).

Gladstone
Queensland—Legislative Assembly
Electoral map of Gladstone 2017
StateQueensland
Created1992
MPGlenn Butcher
PartyLabor Party
NamesakeGladstone
Electors31,673 (2017)
Area10,753 km2 (4,151.8 sq mi)
Coordinates23°57′S 151°21′E
Electorates around Gladstone:
Mirani Keppel Coral Sea
Callide Gladstone Coral Sea
Callide Callide Burnett
Electoral map of Gladstone 2008

The seat was created as a reconfigured version of Port Curtis for the 1992 election. It consists of the city of Gladstone and the towns of the former Shire of Calliope. This includes the town of Calliope, and the localities of Ambrose, Benaraby, Boyne Island, Builyan Mount Larcom, Tannum Sands and Ubobo.

The current member is Labor MP Glenn Butcher. Butcher won the seat following the retirement of long-serving independent Liz Cunningham, who won the seat on National Party preferences after defeating then Labor MP Neil Bennett at the 1995 election. Cunningham was a well-known local figure, having previously been Mayor of the Shire of Calliope prior to entering State politics. Her 1995 victory made her the first non-Labor member for Gladstone and its predecessors since 1932, and only the second since 1915.

Even though Cunningham had held the seat without much difficulty, Gladstone had almost always been a safe Labor seat in calculations of "traditional" two-party matchups–i. e., Labor vs. National before 2009, and Labor vs. LNP since 2009. This is due almost entirely to the presence of the city of Gladstone, a Labor stronghold for the better part of a century. Proving this, Labor would have held the seat on a margin of 11 percent during its meltdown of 2012. Thus, it was not considered an upset when Butcher, who had been Cunningham's Labor opponent in 2012, easily reclaimed the seat for Labor at the 2015 election. Underlining Labor's strength in the seat, Butcher won an outright majority on the first count while pushing the LNP into third place.

Labor consolidated its hold on the seat in 2017, with Butcher picking up a healthy swing of 10.7 percent and again pushing the LNP into third place.[2] He now sits on a majority of 20.7 percent, making Gladstone the fourth-safest Labor seat in the state and the safest outside Brisbane.

Members for Gladstone
MemberPartyTerm
  Neil Bennett Labor 1992–1995
  Liz Cunningham Independent 1995–2015
  Glenn Butcher Labor 2015–present

Election results
Main article: Electoral results for the district of Gladstone
2017 Queensland state election: Gladstone[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labor Glenn Butcher 17,307 64.3 +11.1
One Nation Amy Lohse 5,497 20.4 +20.4
Liberal National Chay Conaglen 3,113 11.6 −3.8
Greens Peta Baker 998 3.7 −0.3
Total formal votes 26,915 96.7 −1.6
Informal votes 929 3.3 +1.6
Turnout 27,844 86.4 −3.8
Two-candidate-preferred result
Labor Glenn Butcher 19,028 70.7 +7.7
One Nation Amy Lohse 7,887 29.3 +29.3
Labor hold Swing+7.7

References
  1. "Representatives of Queensland State Electorates 1860-2017" (PDF). Queensland Parliamentary Record 2012-2017: The 55th Parliament. Queensland Parliament. Archived from the original on 27 April 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2020.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
  2. Green, Antony. "Gladstone". Queensland Election 2017. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 9 October 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  3. 2017 State General Election - Gladstone - District Summary Archived 22 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine, ECQ.
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