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| Adam Carr's Election Archive
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Australian federal election, 2025
Division of Groom, Queensland
Named for: Hon Sir Littleton Groom (1867-1936), federal MP 1901-29, 1931-36, Speaker 1926-29.
South-east Queensland: Centenary Heights, Newtown, Oakey, Rangeville, Toowoomba
Enrolment at 2019 election: 105,984
Enrolment at 2022 election: 110,878 (+04.7)
1999 republic referendum: No 72.6
2018 same-sex marriage survey: No 50.8
2023 Voice referendum: No 76.3
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Sitting member: Garth Hamilton (Liberal): Elected 2020 by-election, 2022
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2007 Liberal majority over Labor: 8.2%
2010 Liberal majority over Labor: 18.5%
2013 Liberal majority over Labor: 16.5%
2016 Liberal majority over Labor: 15.5%
2019 Liberal majority over Labor: 20.5%
2020 by-election Liberal majority over Labor: 17.2%
2022 Liberal majority over Independent: 6.9%
Status: Very safe Liberal (over Labor)
Liberal two-party vote 1983-2022
2020 by-election results
2022 results
Statistics and history
Division of Groom
Groom was created in 1984, when the old seat of
Darling Downs, which had existed since Federation, was renamed.
The seat has always been based on the provincial centre of Toowoomba, and successive redistributions have cut
the seat back so that now it consists of little more than the city and a few rural areas to the west. Toowoomba
is a fairly prosperous town that serves as the administrative and economic centre of the Downs region, and is
one of the most conservative large centres in Australia. The seat has never come close to electing a Labor
member in its history, although Toowoomba has occasionally elected Labor state members.
The Toowoomba area's conservatism is partly explained by its fairly low level of median family income and its
very low level of people born in non English speaking countries, although as an administrative centre it has
more people in professional occupations than most rural cities.
Darling Downs was won in 1901 by
William Groom, the only ex-convict elected to the national Parliament and the "father of the House" of the first Parliament. His death later in 1901 led to the first federal by-election. He was succeeded by his son,
Littleton Groom (after whom the seat is now named), who as Speaker in 1929 helped bring down the Bruce government.
The most eminent member for Darling Downs was
Sir Arthur Fadden, Country Party leader and briefly Prime
Minister in 1941, who held the seat from 1936 to 1949 before shifting to
McPherson. Three subsequent members,
Sir Reginald Swartz,
Tom McVeigh and
Ian Macfarlane, have been Cabinet ministers. In the past the seat has been held by the Country Party and its successors the Nationals, but the Liberals won it at the 1988 by-election
and have held it ever since. Ian Macfarlane was Industry Minister for six years in the Howard Government
and held the same position in the Abbott Government before being dropped by
Malcolm Turnbull in 2015. He retired
in 2016.
He was succeeded by Dr John McVeigh, MLA for Toowoomba South 2012-16 and son of the former Nationals MP
Tom McVeigh. He gained rapid promotion and became Minister for Regional
Development, Territories and Local Government in December 2017, but was dropped from the Morrison ministry in
August 2018. He resigned his seat in September 2020 owing to the serious illness of his wife.
Garth Hamilton, Liberal MP for Groom since the November 2020 by-election, was a mining engeineer before his election. There was only a modest swing to Labor at the by-election, and at the 2022 election Labor
came third behind a local independent. Hamilton will now be secure in one of the safest Liberal seats in Australia.
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