Psephos - Adam Carr's Election Archive

Adam Carr's Election Archive

Australian federal election, 2025
Division of Griffith, Queensland

Named for: Rt Hon Sir Samuel Griffith (1845-1920), Qld MP 1872-93, Premier 1883-88, 1890-93, Chief Justice of Queensland. Principal author of the Australian Constitution, first Chief Justice of the High Court.


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Southside Brisbane: Bulimba, Coorparoo, Greenslopes, Morningside, West End

Enrolment at 2019 election: 111,917
Enrolment at 2022 election: 121,278 (+08.4)
1999 republic referendum: No 52.2
2018 same-sex marriage survey: Yes 76.6
2023 Voice referendum: Yes 56.0

Sitting member: Max Chandler-Mather (Greens): Elected 2022


2007 Labor majority over Liberal: 12.3%
2010 Labor majority over Liberal: 8.5%
2013 Labor majority over Liberal: 3.0%
2014 by-election Labor majority over Liberal: 1.8%
2016 Labor majority over Liberal 1.6%
2019 Labor majority over Liberal 2.9%
2022 Greens majority over Liberal 10.5%

Status: Fairly safe Greens (from Liberals)
Labor/Greens two-party vote 1983-2022


  • 2022 results
  • Statistics and history

  • Announced candidates:

    Max Chandler-Mather
    Australian Greens
    Renee Coffey
    Australian Labor Party

    Division of Griffith

    Griffith was created in 1934, when the old seat of http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/a/australia/history/oxley1/oxl1.shtml">Oxley, which had taken in the inner southern suburbs of Brisbane since Federation, was renamed. (A new seat of Oxley, based on Ipswich, was created in 1949.) Until the 1970s it was usually a marginal seat, and changed hands regularly. Then, like many inner city seats, it drifted towards Labor as it was 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 graduates and of people in professional and managerial occupations. There are still a few Liberal areas, notably Bulimba, but most of the seat remained reliably Labor until the rise of the Greens after 2007.

    The Greens vote in Griffith rose from 7.9% in 2007 to 23.7% in 2019, as the affluent inner-city elite transferred its loyalty from Labor to a more radical alternative. The 2018 redistribution removed some strong Labor territory around Annerley, slightly reducing the Labor majority, and leaving Labor more vulnerable to a Greens challenge.

    Because Griffith was so consistently marginal, no member was able to hold it long enough to become a minister until Ben Humphreys, who was a junior minister in the Keating Government.

    Kevin Rudd won the seat at his second try in 1998, became Leader of the Opposition in 2006, and went on to win the November 2007 election. Rudd's autocratic style as PM rapidly alienated most his colleagues, and he was deposed in June 2010. Determined to regain the leadership, he staged a coup in June 2013 against his successor Julia Gillard and returned as PM, but then lost the September election to Tony Abbott. He resigned his seat in November 2013.

    Rudd was succeeded at the 2014 by-election by Terri Butler, an industrial lawyer and union organiser. She suffered negative swings at both the 2014 by-election and the 2016 election. At the 2022 election she was Shadow Minister for the Environment and Water.

    The Greens victory in Griffith was one of the surprises of the 2022 election. I wrote in my 2022 guide: "Although Griffith is now the Greens' strongest Queensland seat, they are still unlikely to win it. At the 2020 state election they won the seat of South Brisbane, but only with the help of Liberal preferences, which they will probably not get federally." As it turned out, the Greens did not need Liberal preferences, because Butler finished third and her preferences elected Max Chandler-Mather

    Max Chandler-Mather, Greens MP for Griffith since 2022, was an organiser for the National Tertiary Education Union, and later a full-time party organiser. He is now Greens Spokesperson on Housing and Homelessness. The Labor candidate in 2025 will be Renee Coffey, CEO of the Australian Kookaburra Kids Foundation, a charity that delivers services to young people impacted by family mental illness.


    Boundaries following most recent redistribution:



    See full-size map of this Division



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