Psephos - Adam Carr's Election Archive

Adam Carr's Election Archive

Australian federal election, 2025
Division of Fadden, Queensland

Named for: Rt Hon Sir Arthur Fadden (1894-1973), federal MP 1936-58, Prime Minister 1941, Leader of the Opposition 1941-43


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Gold Coast: Arundel, Helensvale, Labrador, Pacific Pines, Runaway Bay

Enrolment at 2019 election: 114,043
Enrolment at 2022 election: 127,728 (+12.1)
1999 republic referendum: No 63.0
2018 same-sex marriage survey: Yes 61.8
2023 Voice referendum: No 73.6

Sitting member: Cameron Caldwell (Liberal): Elected 2023 by-election


2007 Liberal majority over Labor: 10.2%
2010 Liberal majority over Labor: 14.2%
2013 Liberal majority over Labor: 14.4%
2016 Liberal majority over Labor: 11.3%
2019 Liberal majority over Labor: 14.2%
2022 Liberal majority over Labor: 10.6%
2023 by-election Liberal majority over Labor: 13.4%

Status: Fairly safe Liberal
Liberal two-party vote 1983-2022


  • 2022 results
  • 2023 by-election results
  • Statistics and history

  • Announced candidates:

    Cameron Caldwell
    Liberal Party

    Division of Fadden

    Fadden was created in 1977, and was originally based in Brisbane's southern suburbs and the rural areas between Brisbane and the NSW border. Successive redistributions have moved it first into the south-eastern bayside suburbs of Brisbane and more recently down the coast, so that it now occupies the suburbanising corridor between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, and includes northern parts of the Gold Coast tourism and retirement strip. Unlike most fringe-suburban seats, it is not a true mortgage belt seat, as shown by the average levels of families with dependent children and of dwellings being purchased. The seat has a low level of people in professional and managerial occupations but an above-average number of people working in manufacturing and construction.

    David Beddall won Fadden for Labor in 1983, but in 1984 he shifted to the new seat of Rankin, and David Jull regained Fadden for the Liberals, when the seat was moved eastwards and became reasonably secure for the Liberals. Jull (who was member for Bowman 1975-83) was briefly a minister in the first Howard government, but otherwise enjoyed a long career on the backbench until his retirement in 2007.

    He was succeeded by Stuart Robert, who was on the opposition front bench from 2009, and a minister in the Abbott-Turnbull Government, until he resigned in February 2016, following a controversy over his attendance at a business meeting in China in 2014. In August 2018 Prime Minister Scott Morrison brought him back into the ministry. As Minister for Government Services in 2019-21, Robert was implicated in the scandal surrounding the failed Robodebt scheme. At the Royal Commission into the scheme, Robert admitted to lying to the public about the scheme while it was active, stating he chose not to report his personal feelings about flaws within it, and instead defended it out of "cabinet solidarity." He resigned from Parliament in May 2023.

    Cameron Caldwell, who easily won the July 2023 by-election which followed Robert's resignation, was a suburban solicitor and a Gold Coast City councillor at the time of his election.

    Boundaries following most recent redistribution:



    See full-size map of this Division



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