1969 Queensland state election

Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 17 May 1969 to elect the 78 members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland.[1]

1969 Queensland state election
17 May 1969 (1969-05-17)
All 78 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland
40 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
Turnout91.77 ( 1.50 pp)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Joh Bjelke-Petersen Jack Houston No leader
Party Country/Liberal coalition Labor Democratic Labor Party
Leader since 8 August 1968 12 October 1966 (1966-10-12)
Leader's seat Barambah Bulimba
Last election 47 seats 26 seats 1 seat
Seats won 45 seats 31 seats 1 seat
Seat change 2 5 0
Percentage 44.70% 44.99% 7.24%
Swing 0.08 1.15 0.99
Premier before election

Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Country/Liberal coalition

 Elected Premier

Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Country/Liberal coalition

The Country-Liberal Coalition won its fifth consecutive victory since it won government in 1957. It was also the Coalition's first victory under new leader Joh Bjelke-Petersen after the brief premierships of Gordon Chalk and Jack Pizzey, who in turn had succeeded Frank Nicklin when he had retired the previous year.

The election campaign was characterised by tension between the governing coalition partners.

Key dates
Date Event
8 April 1969 The Legislative Assembly was dissolved and writs were issued.[2]
17 April 1969 Close of nominations.[3]
17 May 1969 Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
29 May 1969 The Bjelke-Petersen Ministry was reconstituted.[4]
21 June 1969 The writ was returned and the results formally declared.[5]
30 June 1969 Deadline for return of the writs.
5 August 1969 Parliament resumed for business.[6]

Candidates
Main article: Candidates of the Queensland state election, 1969

By the close of nominations on 17 April, 247 candidates had nominated—two more than at the 1966 election. The Courier-Mail reported the following split of candidates by party:[7]

Party Candidates
Labor77
DLP61
Liberal44
Country39
Social Credit3
Communist2
NQP (Aikens)1
Independent20

Six of the 78 seats—Albert, Bundaberg, Cairns, South Coast, Toowoomba West and Townsville North—had three-cornered contests between the Labor, Liberal and Country parties.[7]

Results

The election resulted in another win for the Coalition, but a strengthening of the Country Party's position vis-a-vis the Liberal Party. Labor gained back two seats held by ex-Labor ministers who had defected in the 1957 split when both retired, and gained one seat off each of the coalition partners; however, the Country party gained the seat of Burdekin following the conservative independent incumbent's retirement. Labor retained Isis, which it had gained unexpectedly at a November 1968 by-election from the Country Party following Premier Jack Pizzey's death.

Queensland state election, 17 May 1969
Legislative Assembly
<< 1966–1972 >>

Enrolled voters 945,583
Votes cast 867,743 Turnout 91.77% -1.50%
Informal votes 15,566 Informal 1.79% +0.16%
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes % Swing Seats Change
  Labor 383,388 44.99% +1.15% 31 + 4
  Liberal 201,765 23.68% -1.81% 19 – 1
  Country 179,125 21.02% +1.73% 26 ± 0
  Queensland Labor 61,661 7.24% +0.99% 1 ± 0
  Social Credit 1,295 0.15% +0.15% 0 ± 0
  Communist 476 0.06% +0.06% 0 ± 0
  Independent 22,497 2.64% -2.12% 1 – 3
Total 852,177     78  
Popular vote
Labor
 
 44.99%
Liberal
 
 23.68%
Country
 
 21.02%
Democratic Labor
 
 7.24%
Independents
 
 2.85%
Seats
Labor
 
 39.74%
Country
 
 33.33%
Liberal
 
 24.36%
Democratic Labor
 
 1.28%
Independents
 
 1.28%

Seats changing hands
Seat Pre-1969 Swing Post-1969
Party Member Margin Margin Member Party
Bundaberg   Independent Ted Walsh 3.5 v ALP N/A 8.1 v CP Lou Jensen Labor  
Burdekin   Independent Arthur Coburn 8.5 v LIB N/A 4.2 v ALP Val Bird Country  
Cook   Independent Bunny Adair 5.2 v ALP N/A 6.1 v CP Bill Wood Labor  
Logan   Country Dick Wood 3.2 -4.8 1.6 Ted Baldwin Labor  
Rockhampton South   Liberal Rex Pilbeam 6.7 -8.9 2.2 Keith Wright Labor  
  • Members in italics did not recontest their seats.
  • In addition, Labor retained the seat of Isis, which it had won from the Country party at the 1968 by-election.

Post-election pendulum
COUNTRY/LIBERAL SEATS (45)
Marginal
Hawthorne Bill Kaus LIB 0.02%
Bowen Peter Delamothe LIB 1.4%
Windsor Bob Moore LIB 1.5%
Ashgrove Douglas Tooth LIB 2.8%
Burdekin Val Bird CP 4.2%
Murrumba David Nicholson CP 4.2%
Mirani Tom Newbery CP 4.5%
Wavell Arthur Crawford LIB 4.8%
Kurilpa Clive Hughes LIB 4.9%
Flinders Bill Longeran CP 5.1%
Aspley Fred Campbell LIB 5.5%
Fairly Safe
Callide Vincent Jones CP 6.8%
Ithaca Col Miller LIB 6.8%
Nundah William Knox LIB 6.8%
Merthyr Ray Ramsden LIB 7.3%
Mount Gravatt Geoff Chinchen LIB 7.8%
Yeronga Norm Lee LIB 8.6%
Chatsworth Bill Hewitt LIB 8.7%
Whitsunday Ron Camm CP 8.7%
Balonne Harold Hungerford CP 8.9%
Redcliffe Jim Houghton CP 9.3%
Mulgrave Roy Armstrong CP 9.8%
Somerset Harold Richter CP 9.9%
Safe
Clayfield John Murray LIB 10.3%
Warwick David Cory CP 10.5%
Mackenzie Neville Hewitt CP 11.3%
South Coast Russ Hinze CP 12.4% v LIB
Greenslopes Keith Hooper LIB 12.6%
Gregory Wally Rae CP 12.7%
Fassifern Selwyn Muller CP 13.4%
Sherwood John Herbert CP 13.6%
Roma Ken Tomkins CP 14.1%
Carnarvon Henry McKechnie CP 14.4%
Hinchinbrook John Row CP 14.9%
Gympie Max Hodges CP 15.3%
Burnett Claude Wharton CP 15.9%
Toowong Charles Porter LIB 17.3%
Cooroora David Low CP 17.6%
Mount Coot-tha Bill Lickiss LIB 18.5%
Landsborough Mike Ahern CP 18.7%
Cunningham Alan Fletcher CP 19.2%
Lockyer Gordon Chalk LIB 20.7% v IND
Albert Cec Carey CP 25.2%
Condamine Vic Sullivan CP 25.2%
Barambah Joh Bjelke-Petersen CP 28.2%
LABOR SEATS (31)
Marginal
Toowoomba West Ray Bousen ALP 0.6%
Townsville North Perc Tucker ALP 0.7%
Logan Ted Baldwin ALP 1.6%
Rockhampton South Keith Wright ALP 2.2%
Tablelands Edwin Wallis-Smith ALP 2.4%
Isis Jim Blake ALP 4.4%
Warrego Jack Aiken ALP 4.5%
Norman Fred Bromley ALP 4.6%
Toowoomba East Peter Wood ALP 4.6%
Fairly safe
Cook Bill Wood ALP 6.1%
Ipswich West Vi Jordan ALP 6.3%
Mourilyan Peter Moore ALP 6.9%
Maryborough Horace Davies ALP 7.5%
Bundaberg Lou Jensen ALP 8.1%
Barcoo Eugene O'Donnell ALP 8.4%
Belmont Fred Newton ALP 8.8%
Brisbane Brian Davis ALP 8.8%
Ipswich East Evan Marginson ALP 9.5%
Safe
Mackay Ed Casey ALP 10.5%
Kedron Eric Lloyd ALP 11.6%
South Brisbane Col Bennett ALP 12.3%
Burke Alex Inch ALP 13.0%
Wynnum Edward Harris ALP 13.2%
Nudgee Jack Melloy ALP 13.9%
Sandgate Harold Dean ALP 14.7%
Cairns Ray Jones ALP 15.5%
Baroona Pat Hanlon ALP 15.7%
Rockhampton North Merv Thackeray ALP 17.4%
Bulimba Jack Houston ALP 17.8%
Salisbury Doug Sherrington ALP 20.5%
Port Curtis Martin Hanson ALP 31.3% v DLP
CROSSBENCH SEATS (2)
Townsville South Tom Aikens IND 9.2% v ALP
Aubigny Les Diplock DLP 13.2% v CP

See also

References
  1. "Parliament of Queensland, Legislative Assembly election results for 17 May 1969". Australian Politics and Elections Archive 1856-2018. University of Western Australia. Archived from the original on 31 March 2017. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  2. "A Proclamation". Queensland Government Gazette. 8 April 1969. p. 230:1173.
  3. "Extraordinary". Queensland Government Gazette. 8 April 1969. p. 230:1175.
  4. "Extraordinary". Queensland Government Gazette. 29 May 1969. p. 231:563–567.
  5. "Notices of Results of General Election". Queensland Government Gazette. 21 June 1969. p. 231:915–928.
  6. "A Proclamation". Queensland Government Gazette. 26 June 1969. p. 231:1097.
  7. "Six three-cornered contests for State election". The Courier-Mail. 18 April 1969. p. 7.
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