Labor faces knife-edge result as LNP records significant swing in Brisbane heartland
Updated ,first published
Queensland’s Labor opposition has suffered a significant blow against the party in its north Brisbane headquarters, with a knife-edge result in the Stafford by-election.
In a seat Labor has lost only once since 2001, the party was facing a 4 per cent swing to the LNP following preferences 19 months after the bruising state election.
By 11 p.m. Saturday, with about three-quarters of the votes counted, the first two-party party election commission tally First-time Labor candidate Luke Richmond was ahead by less than 800 votes.
Opposition Leader Steven Miles declared victory for Richmond in a speech to a room of hundreds of red-clad supporters at the Edinburgh Castle Hotel in Kedron, amid what he described as a “moderate primary vote swing towards the LNP”.
“It was an incredibly short campaign and was called under difficult circumstances,” Miles told the crowd earlier. The ABC said Labor was likely to retain the seat despite the LNP getting 4 per cent of the vote.
Addressing LNP loyalists at the Valleys Diehards leagues club in the Grange, Prime Minister David Crisafulli described the move as “one of the biggest moves ever by the government”. But he said he thought his party would be “woefully inadequate”.
Move towards LNP will further strengthen Crisafulli government after by-election victory last year at Hinchinbrook.
The Conservative party will also use this result to put pressure on Miles, who is looking after him. An unofficial internal deadline has been set for later this year To increase Labor Party support.
Asked by reporters whether he believed Labor would do better with someone else as leader, Miles said that would be a decision for the convention.
After speaking at a Labor Party event, Miles said: “But I now have the support of the caucus to be leader and I’m very proud to be leader of our party.”
By-election triggered death of former congressman Jimmy Sullivan At the beginning of April.
Sullivan had been sitting as an independent since his expulsion from Labor last year. highly publicized personal struggles.
Addressing the crowd at Kedron, Richmond said: “We threw away everything we had in this campaign. We knocked on every voter’s door twice.”
He said the emotions felt by those in the room about the outcome would pale in comparison to “our friend Jimmy’s” family, some of whom attended the meeting.
The LNP’s candidate, former Brisbane local councilor Fiona Hammond, lost to Sullivan in Stafford in 2024 by a two-party margin of 5.3 per cent.
This time he encountered Richmond, a barrister with a background in health policy who was most recently Labour’s deputy foreign secretary.
Also among those packing the Labor venue at a stand-up comedy night held at the nearby bistro were cabinet ministers, including deputy leader Cameron Dick and shadow treasurer Shannon Fentiman. Both are considered alternative party leaders.
Party officials and union leaders included federal senators Murray Watt and Anthony Chisholm and former federal treasurer and Labor national chairman Wayne Swan, as well as former Labor MP Dr. Anthony Lynham also attended the meeting.
Much of the focus was on sending a message to the government or opposition, in a brief and largely small-targeted campaign in which the government announced its fledgling fuel security plans, while Labor attacked the LNP over hospital beds.
Stafford centre, which stretches from Newmarket to Chermside north of Brisbane, is made up mostly of younger, better-educated voters who tend to be renters.
Labor has held the seat in every poll since the electorate was restored in 2001, except for the Newman landslide in 2012.
The LNP lost the seat two years later in one of the state’s biggest anti-government byelection swings.
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Matt Dennien is a reporter for the Brisbane Times covering state politics, parliament and the public sector. He previously worked for newspapers in Tasmania and Brisbane community radio station 4ZZZ. Contact him securely on Signal @mattdennien.15Connect via email.
