1972 Queensland state election

Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 27 May 1972 to elect the 82 members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland.[1]

1972 Queensland state election
27 May 1972 (1972-05-27)
All 82 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland
42 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
Turnout92.41 (Increase 0.64 pp)
  First party Second party Third party
 
DLP
Leader Joh Bjelke-Petersen Jack Houston No leader
Party Coalition Labor DLP
Leader since 8 August 1968 12 October 1966 (1966-10-12)
Leader's seat Barambah Bulimba
Last election 45 seats 31 seats 1 seat
Seats won 47 33 0
Seat change Increase 2 Increase 2 Decrease 1
Popular vote 383,000 424,002 69,757
Percentage 42.23% 46.75% 7.69%
Swing Decrease 2.47 Increase 1.76 Increase 0.46
Premier before election

Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Country/Liberal coalition

 Elected Premier

Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Country/Liberal coalition

The Country-Liberal Coalition won its sixth consecutive victory since it won government in 1957 and also its second victory under Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

Key dates
Date Event
18 April 1972 The Legislative Assembly was dissolved.[2]
18 April 1972 Writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.[3]
27 April 1972 Close of nominations.
27 May 1972 Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.[4]
20 June 1972 The Bjelke-Petersen Ministry was reconstituted.[5]
24 June 1972 The writ was returned and the results formally declared.[6]
10 July 1972 Deadline for return of the writs.
1 August 1972 Parliament resumed for business.[7]

Results
See also: Results of the Queensland state election, 1972

Queensland state election, 27 May 1972
Legislative Assembly
<< 1969–1974 >>

Enrolled voters 997,489
Votes cast 921,763 Turnout 92.41% +0.64%
Informal votes 15,566 Informal 1.61% -0.18%
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes  % Swing Seats Change
  Labor 424,002 46.75% +1.76% 33 + 2
  Liberal 201,596 22.23% -1.45% 21 + 2
  Country 181,404 20.00% -1.02% 26 ± 0
  Queensland Labor 69,757 7.69% +0.46% 0 - 1
  Independent 30,187 3.33% +0.48% 2 + 1
Total 906,946     82  
Popular vote
Labor
 
 46.75%
Liberal
 
 22.23%
Country
 
 20.00%
Democratic Labor
 
 7.69%
Independents
 
 3.33%
Seats
Labor
 
 40.24%
Country
 
 31.71%
Liberal
 
 25.61%
Independents
 
 2.44%

Seats changing hands
Seat Pre-1972 Swing Post-1972
Party Member Margin Margin Member Party
Albert   Liberal Bill Heatley* 0.5 -4.6 4.1 Bill D'Arcy Labor  
Ipswich   Labor notional - new seat 4.5 -5.7 1.2 Llew Edwards Liberal  
Mackay   Labor Ed Casey 6.7 -20.1 13.4 Ed Casey Independent  
  • ¶ Results for Albert based on 1970 by-election
  • Bill Heatley died in October 1971, but no by-election was called due to the proximity of the 1972 election.
  • In addition, the Liberal Party retained Maryborough, which was won from Labor at the 1971 by-election.
  • Aubigny, which was the last seat held by the Democratic Labor Party, was abolished at this election and its outgoing member, Les Diplock, retired.

Post-election pendulum
Country/Liberal seats (47)
Marginal
Murrumba Des Frawley CP 1.0%
Ipswich Llew Edwards LIB 1.2%
Kurilpa Clive Hughes LIB 1.5%
Condamine Vic Sullivan CP 1.8% v IND
Mansfield Bill Kaus LIB 2.0%
Wavell Arthur Crawford LIB 2.0%
Hinchinbrook Ted Row CP 2.5%
Mount Gravatt Geoff Chinchen CP 2.5%
Gregory Wally Rae CP 2.6%
Maryborough Gilbert Alison LIB 3.8%
Nundah William Knox LIB 3.9%
Yeronga Norm Lee LIB 4.3%
Ashgrove Douglas Tooth LIB 4.8%
Greenslopes Keith Hooper LIB 5.0%
Chatsworth Bill Hewitt LIB 5.1%
Windsor Bob Moore LIB 5.1%
Redcliffe Jim Houghton CP 5.4%
Ithaca Col Miller LIB 5.6%
Carnarvon Henry McKechnie CP 5.9%
Fairly safe
Whitsunday Ron Camm CP 6.9%
Clayfield John Murray LIB 8.2%
Aspley Fred Campbell LIB 8.3%
Mulgrave Roy Armstrong CP 8.4%
Merthyr Don Lane LIB 9.1%
Burdekin Val Bird CP 9.2%
Surfers Paradise Bruce Small CP 9.6%
Flinders Bill Longeran CP 9.7%
Gympie Max Hodges CP 9.7%
Sherwood John Herbert LIB 9.8%
Safe
Callide Lindsay Hartwig CP 10.3%
Townsville Norman Scott-Young LIB 11.5%
Warwick David Cory CP 11.5%
South Coast Russ Hinze CP 11.7%
Mirani Tom Newbery CP 12.1%
Lockyer Gordon Chalk LIB 12.2%
Toowong Charles Porter LIB 13.0%
Auburn Neville Hewitt CP 13.4%
Roma Ken Tomkins CP 14.0%
Balonne Don Neal CP 15.6%
Fassifern Selwyn Muller CP 15.7%
Landsborough Michael Ahern CP 15.7%
Cooroora David Low CP 15.8%
Mount Coot-tha Bill Lickiss LIB 16.0%
Somerset Bill Gunn CP 16.3%
Very safe
Burnett Claude Wharton CP 20.5%
Barambah Joh Bjelke-Petersen CP 23.7%
Cunningham Alan Fletcher CP 26.4%
Labor seats (33)
Marginal
Rockhampton North Les Yewdale ALP 1.1%
Belyando Eugene O'Donnell ALP 1.3%
Stafford Roy Harvey ALP 1.6%
Townsville West Perc Tucker ALP 2.2%
Barron River Bill Wood ALP 3.4%
Albert Bill D'Arcy ALP 4.1%
Cook Edwin Wallis-Smith ALP 4.2%
Redlands Ted Baldwin ALP 5.1%
Rockhampton Keith Wright ALP 5.9%
Fairly safe
Pine Rivers Kenneth Leese ALP 6.8%
Toowoomba South Peter Wood ALP 6.9%
Mourilyan Peter Moore ALP 7.2%
Everton Gerry Jones ALP 8.3%
Isis Jim Blake ALP 8.3%
Brisbane Brian Davis ALP 9.7%
Safe
South Brisbane Fred Bromley ALP 11.0%
Ipswich West Vi Jordan ALP 11.5%
Warrego Jack Aiken ALP 13.4%
Sandgate Harold Dean ALP 13.6%
Baroona Pat Hanlon ALP 14.1%
Wynnum Edward Harris ALP 14.5%
Belmont Fred Newton ALP 14.5%
Toowoomba North Ray Bousen ALP 14.9%
Nudgee Jack Melloy ALP 15.4%
Bulimba Jack Houston ALP 15.6%
Mount Isa Alex Inch ALP 16.4%
Salisbury Doug Sherrington ALP 16.7%
Cairns Ray Jones ALP 18.8%
Bundaberg Lou Jensen ALP 18.9% v DLP
Lytton Tom Burns ALP 19.3%
Very safe
Wolston Evan Marginson ALP 20.3%
Archerfield Kevin Hooper ALP 23.3%
Port Curtis Martin Hanson ALP 32.2% v DLP
Crossbench seats (2)
Townsville South Tom Aikens IND 7.6% v ALP
Mackay Ed Casey IND 13.4% v ALP

See also

References
  1. "Parliament of Queensland, Legislative Assembly election results for 27 May 1972". Australian Politics and Elections Archive 1856-2018. University of Western Australia. Archived from the original on 10 April 2020. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  2. "A Proclamation". Queensland Government Gazette. 18 April 1972. p. 239:1719.
  3. "Extraordinary". Queensland Government Gazette. 18 April 1972. p. 239:1721.
  4. Partridge, Des (27 May 1972). "State election will be tonight's scene-stealer". The Courier-Mail. p. 10.
  5. "Extraordinary". Queensland Government Gazette. 20 June 1972. p. 240:971–974.
  6. "Notices of Results of General Election". Queensland Government Gazette. 24 June 1972. p. 240:1067–1081.
  7. "A Proclamation". Queensland Government Gazette. 22 June 1972. p. 240:979.
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