2017 Queensland state election

2017 Queensland state election

The 2017 Queensland state election was held on 25 November 2017 to elect all 93 members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The first-term incumbent Labor government, led by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, won a second term in government. Amendments to electoral laws increased the number of seats by four from 89 to 93 and changed the optional preferential voting system to compulsory full-preferential voting. Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls conceded defeat and announced he would step down as leader of the party.

About 2017 Queensland state election in brief

Summary 2017 Queensland state electionThe 2017 Queensland state election was held on 25 November 2017 to elect all 93 members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The first-term incumbent Labor government, led by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, won a second term in government. Amendments to electoral laws increased the number of seats by four from 89 to 93 and changed the optional preferential voting system to compulsory full-preferential voting. A 2016 referendum also replaced the state’s unfixed maximum three-year terms with fixed four-year term, but these will not apply until the 2020 election. This marked the ninth time in the last ten elections that Queensland Labor has won government; it won eight consecutive election victories from 1989 to 2009, and was only out of government from 1996 to 1998 when Labor lost its parliamentary majority as well as from 2012 to 2015 following the Liberal National Party’s 2012 landslide win. At the 2015 election, Labor won 44 seats, the most of all parties, but fell short of a majority in all but one of commanding Legislative Assembly. The 2015 election outcome had delivered a hung parliament with 44 seats to Labor opposition, 42 seats to the one-term Liberal National government, and three to the crossbench including two to Katter’s Australian Party.

The redistribution increasing the size of parliament from 89 seats to 93 seats, Labor increased its representation by a net seven seats to a total of 48 seats, allowing it to form government in its own right by two seats. On 8 December 2017, Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls conceded defeat and announced he would step down as leader of the party. Later that day, PalasZczuk visited Government House and was invited to form a majority government by the Governor. The Second Palas zczuk Ministry was subsequently sworn in by theGovernor on 12 December 2017. The seats of Burdekin, Mansfield, and Mount Ommaney were won by the LNP at the2015 election, but redistributions in 2016 made them notionally Labor seats. One Nation won its first seat since 2009 and the Greens won a seat at a state election for the first time. The Shooting Industry Foundation of Australia used USD 550,000 to launch an advertising campaign, named Flick’em, in an effort to urge voters to put both major parties last in ballot paper preferences. This campaign boosted votes for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and the Katter’s Australian Party and achieved lowest major party votes in QLD history.