1974 Queensland state election

1974 Queensland state election
All 82 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland; 42 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	89.42 ( 2.99 pp)
Premier before election; Joh Bjelke-Petersen; National/Liberal coalition	Elected Premier ; Joh Bjelke-Petersen; National/Liberal coalition

Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 7 December 1974^[1] to elect the 82 members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland.^[1]

The National-Liberal Coalition won a third consecutive victory under Joh Bjelke-Petersen, and the seventh consecutive victory for the National Party in Queensland, which had renamed itself from the Country Party since the previous election. The Labor Party lost two-thirds of its seats, including that of leader Perc Tucker, its worst showing in an election until 2012 and thus a landslide victory for the Coalition.

Labor was reduced to only 11 seats, leading observers to call Labor's caucus a "cricket team." William Bowe of Crikey wrote that for years, the election stood as "the gold standard for Australian election massacres".^[2]

Key dates

Date	Event
23 October 1974	Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen announced the early election date at a news conference.^[3]
2 November 1974	The Legislative Assembly was dissolved.^[4]
2 November 1974	Writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.^[5]
8 November 1974	Close of nominations.
7 December 1974	Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
23 December 1974	The Bjelke-Petersen Ministry was reconstituted.^[6]
11 January 1975	The writ was returned and the results formally declared.^[7]
3 February 1975	Deadline for return of the writs.
25 February 1975	Parliament resumed for business.^[8]

Results

Queensland state election, 7 December 1974 Legislative Assembly << 1972–1977 >>
Enrolled voters		1,186,378
Votes cast		1,060,910		Turnout	89.42%	-2.99%
Informal votes		16,742		Informal	1.58%	+0.05%
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor	376,187	36.03%	-10.72%	11	-22
	Liberal	324,682	31.09%	+8.87%	30	+9
	Nationals	291,088	27.88%	+7.88%	39	+13
	Independent	29,582	2.83%	-0.49%	2	±0
	Queensland Labor	19,952	1.91%	-5.78%	0	± 0
	Australia	1,929	0.18%	+0.18%	0	±0
	Australian Advancement	416	0.04%	+0.04%	0	±0
	Socialist	332	0.03%	+0.03%	0	±0
Total		1,044,168			82

Popular vote

Labor			36.03%
Liberal			31.09%
Nationals			27.88%
Democratic Labor			1.91%
Australia			0.18%
Independents			2.83%
Others			0.07%

Seats

Nationals			47.56%
Liberal			36.59%
Labor			13.41%
Independents			2.44%

Seats changing hands

Seat	Pre-1974				Swing	Post-1974
Seat	Party		Member	Margin	Swing	Margin	Member	Party
Albert		Labor	Bill D'Arcy	4.1	-14.2	10.1	Ivan Gibbs	National
Baroona		Labor	Pat Hanlon	14.1	-15.8	1.7	Dennis Young	Liberal
Barron River		Labor	Bill Wood	3.4	-4.1	0.7	Martin Tenni	National
Belmont		Labor	Fred Newton	14.9	-18.5	3.6	David Byrne	Liberal
Belyando		Labor	Eugene O'Donnell	1.3	-8.7	7.4	Vince Lester	National
Brisbane		Labor	Brian Davis	9.7	-10.9	1.2	Harold Lowes	Liberal
Cook		Labor	Bob Scott	4.2	-6.8	2.6	Eric Deeral	National
Everton		Labor	Gerry Jones	8.3	-11.0	2.7	Brian Lindsay	Liberal
Ipswich West		Labor	Vi Jordan	11.5	-12.0	0.5	Albert Hales	National
Isis		Labor	Jim Blake	8.3	-12.4	4.1	Lin Powell	National
Mount Isa		Labor	Alex Inch	16.4	-19.9	3.5	Angelo Bertoni	National
Mourilyan		Labor	Peter Moore	7.2	-8.9	1.7	Vicky Kippin	National
Pine Rivers		Labor	Kenneth Leese	6.8	-18.7	11.9	Rob Akers	Liberal
Redlands		Labor	Ted Baldwin	5.1	-14.8	9.7	John Goleby	National
Salisbury		Labor	Doug Sherrington	16.7	-22.1	5.4	Rosemary Kyburz	Liberal
South Brisbane		Labor	Fred Bromley	11.0	-16.0	5.0	Colin Lamont	Liberal
Stafford		Labor	Roy Harvey	11.0	-16.0	5.0	Terry Gygar	Liberal
Toowoomba North		Labor	Ray Bousen	14.9	-17.2	2.3	John Lockwood	Liberal
Toowoomba South		Labor	Peter Wood	6.9	-14.6	7.7	John Warner	National
Townsville West		Labor	Perc Tucker	2.2	-5.8	3.6	Max Hooper	National
Warrego		Labor	Jack Aiken	13.4	-14.4	1.0	Neil Turner	National
Wynnum		Labor	Edward Harris	14.5	-14.6	0.1	Bill Lamond	National

Members listed in italics did not recontest their seats.

Post-election pendulum

National/Liberal seats (69)
Marginal
Wynnum	Bill Lamond	NAT	0.1%
Ipswich West	Albert Hales	NAT	0.5%
Barron River	Martin Tenni	NAT	0.7%
Warrego	Neil Turner	NAT	1.0%
Brisbane	Harold Lowes	LIB	1.2%
Baroona	Dennis Young	LIB	1.7%
Mourilyan	Vicky Kippin	NAT	1.7%
Cooroora	Gordon Simpson	NAT	2.1% v LIB
Toowoomba North	John Lockwood	LIB	2.3%
Cook	Eric Deeral	NAT	2.6%
Everton	Brian Lindsay	LIB	2.7%
Mount Isa	Angelo Bertoni	NAT	3.5%
Belmont	David Byrne	LIB	3.6%
Townsville West	Max Hooper	NAT	3.6%
Isis	Lin Powell	NAT	4.1%
South Brisbane	Colin Lamont	LIB	5.0%
Salisbury	Rosemary Kyburz	LIB	5.4%
Maryborough	Gilbert Alison	LIB	5.9%
Fairly safe
Belyando	Vince Lester	NAT	7.4%
Toowoomba South	John Warner	NAT	7.7%
Redlands	John Goleby	NAT	9.7%
Safe
Albert	Ivan Gibbs	NAT	10.1%
Hinchinbrook	Ted Row	NAT	10.4%
Kurilpa	Sam Doumany	LIB	11.0%
Stafford	Terry Gygar	LIB	11.7%
Pine Rivers	Rob Akers	LIB	11.9%
Gregory	Bill Glasson	NAT	12.0%
Redcliffe	Jim Houghton	NAT	12.1%
Whitsunday	Ron Camm	NAT	12.2%
Murrumba	Des Frawley	NAT	13.7%
Flinders	Bob Katter	NAT	13.8%
Nundah	William Knox	LIB	13.8%
Mulgrave	Roy Armstrong	NAT	14.8%
Ithaca	Col Miller	LIB	15.4%
Wavell	Arthur Crawford	LIB	15.4%
Windsor	Bob Moore	LIB	15.7%
Merthyr	Don Lane	LIB	16.6%
Townsville	Norman Scott-Young	LIB	17.0%
Chatsworth	Bill Hewitt	LIB	17.7%
South Coast	Russ Hinze	NAT	17.7%
Yeronga	Norm Lee	LIB	17.9%
Ashgrove	John Greenwood	LIB	18.5%
Clayfield	John Murray	LIB	18.5%
Mount Gravatt	Geoff Chinchen	LIB	19.0%
Ipswich	Llewellyn Edwards	LIB	19.1%
Mirani	Tom Newbery	NAT	19.6%
Very safe
Greenslopes	Keith Hooper	LIB	20.2%
Burdekin	Val Bird	NAT	20.3%
Callide	Lindsay Hartwig	NAT	20.8%
Carnarvon	Peter McKechnie	NAT	21.6%
Toowong	Charles Porter	LIB	21.6%
Mansfield	Bill Kaus	LIB	22.2%
Surfers Paradise	Bruce Small	NAT	22.5%
Landsborough	Mike Ahern	NAT	22.6%
Roma	Ken Tomkins	NAT	22.6%
Sherwood	John Herbert	LIB	22.7%
Fassifern	Selwyn Muller	NAT	23.0%
Aspley	Fred Campbell	LIB	23.1%
Gympie	Max Hodges	NAT	23.6%
Burnett	Claude Wharton	NAT	24.1%
Warwick	David Cory	NAT	24.8%
Balonne	Don Neal	NAT	25.4%
Lockyer	Gordon Chalk	LIB	25.6%
Mount Coot-tha	Bill Lickiss	LIB	26.9%
Auburn	Neville Hewitt	NAT	27.9%
Somerset	Bill Gunn	NAT	28.3%
Condamine	Vic Sullivan	NAT	29.3%
Barambah	Joh Bjelke-Petersen	NAT	33.4%
Cunningham	Tony Elliott	NAT	36.5%

Labor seats (11)
Marginal
Bulimba	Jack Houston	ALP	1.7%
Wolston	Evan Marginson	ALP	2.3%
Bundaberg	Lou Jensen	ALP	2.5%
Sandgate	Harold Dean	ALP	3.5%
Rockhampton	Keith Wright	ALP	3.6%
Nudgee	Jack Melloy	ALP	4.1%
Archerfield	Kevin Hooper	ALP	5.0%
Fairly safe
Rockhampton North	Les Yewdale	ALP	6.1%
Lytton	Tom Burns	ALP	6.7%
Cairns	Ray Jones	ALP	7.3%
Safe
Port Curtis	Martin Hanson	ALP	15.7%
Crossbench seats (2)
Townsville South	Tom Aikens	IND	5.8 v ALP
Mackay	Ed Casey	IND	20.5 v NAT

References

^ ^a ^b "Parliament of Queensland, Legislative Assembly election results for 7 December 1974". Australian Politics and Elections Archive 1856-2018. University of Western Australia. Archived from the original on 10 April 2020. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
^ Bowe, William (26 March 2012). "The hole where Queensland Labor used to be". Crikey. Archived from the original on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
^ "250 will contest poll: Premier tips a 'smashing win' on December 7". The Courier-Mail. 24 October 1974. p. 1.
^ "A Proclamation". Queensland Government Gazette. 2 November 1974. p. 247:887.
^ "Extraordinary". Queensland Government Gazette. 2 November 1974. p. 247:889.
^ "Extraordinary". Queensland Government Gazette. 23 December 1974. p. 247:1629–1632.
^ "Notices of Results of General Election". Queensland Government Gazette. 11 January 1975. p. 248:37–51.
^ "A Proclamation". Queensland Government Gazette. 23 January 1975. p. 248:249.