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The 2009 Queensland state election was held on 21 March 2009 to elect all 89 members of the Legislative Assembly, a unicameral parliament.
The election saw the incumbent Labor government led by PremierAnna Bligh defeat the Liberal National Party of Queensland led by Opposition LeaderLawrence Springborg, and gain a fifth consecutive term in office for her party. Bligh thus became the first female Premier of any Australian state elected in her own right.[1]
This was the first election contested by the LNP following its creation with the merger of the National and Liberal parties.
The 2009 election marked the eighth consecutive victory of Labor in a general election since 1989, although it was out of office between 1996 and 1998 as a direct result of the 1996 Mundingburra by-election.
The Labor Party, led by PremierAnna Bligh, and the LNP, led by Opposition LeaderLawrence Springborg, were the two main parties in Queensland at the election. It was the first election contested by the LNP following its creation with the merger of the National and Liberal parties. At the previous election, Labor won 59 seats, the Nationals won 17 seats, the Liberals won eight seats, One Nation won one seat, and independents won four seats. Former Labor MP Ronan Lee joined the Greens in 2008, thus becoming their parliamentary leader. Lee lost his seat at the election.[2]
A redistribution saw Labor notionally pick up three seats. Therefore, the LNP notionally needed to pick up 22 seats rather than 20 seats to form a majority government, which equated to an unchanged uniform 8.3 percent two-party-preferred swing.[3]
Former Premier Peter Beattie resigned in September 2007, which triggered the October 2007 Brisbane Central by-election.
A redistribution of electoral boundaries occurred in 2008.
The electorates of Charters Towers, Cunningham, Darling Downs, Fitzroy, Kurwongbah, Mount Gravatt, Robina, and Tablelands were abolished.
The electorates of Buderim, Condamine, Coomera, Dalrymple, Mermaid Beach, Morayfield, Pine Rivers, and Sunnybank were created.
The redistribution merged Charters Towers with Tablelands to create the notionally National-held Dalrymple, Fitzroy into Mirani, and Cunningham with Darling Downs to create the notionally National-held Condamine, all in regional Queensland. Notionally Liberal-held Buderim was created on the Sunshine Coast, notionally Labor-held Morayfield in the corridor north of Brisbane, and notionally Labor-held Coomera was created on the Gold Coast. Kurwongbah was renamed Pine Rivers, Mount Gravatt was renamed Sunnybank, and Robina was renamed Mermaid Beach. Burdekin, Clayfield, and Mirani became notionally Labor-held, while Glass House became notionally National-held.
The changes resulted in 62 notionally Labor-held seats, 8 notionally Liberal-held seats, 15 notionally National-held seats, and 4 notionally Independent-held seats. All Liberal-held and National-held seats became Liberal National-held seats.
Newspoll polling was conducted via random telephone number selection in city and country areas. Sampling sizes usually consist of around 1000 electors, with the declared margin of error at around ±3 percent.