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| Australian federal election, 2016
Division of Griffith, Queensland
Southside Brisbane: Bulimba, Carina, Coorparoo, Greenslopes
Sitting member: Terri Butler (Labor), elected 2014
Enrolment at close of rolls: 105,841
2013 Labor majority over Liberal 3.0%
2014 by-election Labor majority over Liberal 1.8%
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Candidates in ballot-paper order:
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1. Matt Darragh
Australian Liberty Alliance |
2. Karen Anderson
Australian Greens |
3. Bronwyn Ablett
Liberal Democratic Party |
4. Karel Boele
Independent |
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5. Fiona Ward
Liberal Party |
6. Terri Butler
Australian Labor Party |
7. Dr John Jiggens
Drug Law Reform |
8. Theresa Graham
Family First |
2013 results
2014 by-election results
Statistics and history
Griffith was created in 1934, when the old seat of Oxley, which had taken in the inner southern suburbs of Brisbane since Federation, was renamed. Until the 1970s it was usually a marginal seat, and changed hands regularly. Since then, like many inner city seats, it has drifted towards Labor as it has been colonised by high-income professionals with liberal-to-left political views, particularly in the South Brisbane-West End area. Today it has a fairly high median income level and a high proportion of people in professional occupations. There are still a few Liberal areas, notably Bulimba, but most of the seat is now reliably Labor.
Because this seat was so consistently marginal, no member was able to hold it long enough to become a minister until Ben Humphries, who was a junior minister in the Keating Government. Kevin Rudd won the seat in 1998, having failed at his first try in 1996. Rudd, a former diplomat and head of the Cabinet office during Wayne Goss's Labor government in Queensland, was on the Opposition front bench from 2001, and soon emerged as one of Labor's best performers. In December 2006 he defeated Kim Beazley in a Caucus ballot and became Leader of the Opposition, and went on to win the November 2007 election.
Rudd's autocratic style as PM rapidly alienated most his colleagues, but as long as he dominated the polls he was invulnerable. But in January 2010 he abruptly dropped the government's flagship emissions trading scheme, and immediately crashed in the polls. This led to a cross-factional move against him, and he was deposed in June 2010. After the 2010 election, new PM Julia Gillard made him Foreign Minister, but he was determined to regain the leadership and resigned in February 2012. In June, with Gillard trailing in the polls, he staged a coup and returned as PM, but then lost the September election to Tony Abbott. He resigned his seat in November 2013.
Terri Butler, Labor MP for Griffith since the 2014 by-election which followed Rudd's resignation, was an industrial lawyer and union organiser before her election. She was appointed a shadow parliamentary secretary in October 2015. The Liberal candidate in 2016 is Fiona Ward.
These maps are the property of Adam Carr and may not be reproduced without his permission.
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Prospective pendulum, showing all candidates
State and territory maps, showing new boundaries
The thirty seats that will decide the election
Other seats of interest
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