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| Adam Carr's Election Archive
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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.
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
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
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.
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