Queensland's Labor government has lost a once-safe seat after heavy swings to the Liberal National Party (LNP) in both state by-elections held yesterday.
Labor had held the seat of Ipswich West, west of Brisbane, on a margin of 14.3 per cent, but it became obvious within hours of polls closing yesterday that a heavy double-digit swing was underway.
Labor had previously won Ipswich West at 19 of the past 22 elections.
The ABC's chief election analyst Antony Green declared on Sunday morning that LNP candidate Darren Zanow had clearly won the seat, attracting 39.6 per cent of the primary vote with 77 per cent of votes counted.
In the other by-election in the south-west Brisbane seat of Inala, the swing against the ALP is even larger, but Labor's Margie Nightingale appears on track to retain the seat of former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
Inala had been in the hands of the Palaszczuk family for more than 30 years and will remain with Labor despite a swing of 19 per cent to the LNP.
Green said there had not been a swing of that magnitude against a sitting Queensland government "in all the years I've covered elections".
"[It's] bigger than the Redcliffe and Stafford [by-election] swing that (then-premier) Campbell Newman suffered in 2014," he said.
Yesterday's by-elections were held to coincide with yesterday's local government elections following the resignations of Jim Madden and the former premier.
Miles: 'I was expecting a bad result'
Premier Steven Miles said he had expected the by-elections to be "very, very hard" but he was determined to heed the message from voters.
"Clearly voters in both of these electorates wanted to send our government a message, and my message back to them is that we are listening," he said.
"I was expecting a bad result, and they're even worse than that. They are in the range that you do sometimes see in by-elections against governments.
"As I said, these by-elections, they're hard for governments, easy for oppositions. But this is a bad result, I'm not sugarcoating anything here."
Mr Miles thanked the voters of Inala for electing Ms Nightingale, saying she would be a "great new member of our government".
He also thanked Labor's Ipswich West candidate Wendy Bourne and said she would run in the seat again in the October state election.
'Labor needs to take stock'
Greens Member for Maiwar Michael Berkman said Labor was in serious trouble in Brisbane in the lead up to the October state election.
"They are bleeding voters on housing, particularly renters and first home buyers who are just moving to the Greens in droves," Mr Berkman said.
"If last night's results were reproduced at a state election, they would lose Cooper, McConnel and Greenslopes and they'd be in serious trouble in Miller, Bulimba and Stafford.
"So Labor needs to take stock and take a message from this."
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiaGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDI0LTAzLTE3L3FsZC1saWItbmF0cy13aW4tZm9ybWVyLXNhZmUtbGFib3Itc2VhdC1vZi1pcHN3aWNoLXdlc3QvMTAzNTk4MTc40gEoaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEwMzU5ODE3OA?oc=5
2024-03-17 04:07:30Z
CBMiaGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDI0LTAzLTE3L3FsZC1saWItbmF0cy13aW4tZm9ybWVyLXNhZmUtbGFib3Itc2VhdC1vZi1pcHN3aWNoLXdlc3QvMTAzNTk4MTc40gEoaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEwMzU5ODE3OA
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