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| Adam Carr's Election Archive
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Australian federal election, 2025
Division of Herbert, Queensland
Named for: Hon Sir Robert Herbert (1831-1905), Qld MP 1860-66, first
Premier of Qld 1859-66
North Queensland: Condon, Kirwan, Mount Louisa, Mundingburra, Townsville
Enrolment at 2019 election: 108,434
Enrolment at 2022 election: 114,164 (+05.4)
1999 republic referendum: No 61.5
2018 same-sex marriage survey: Yes 62.8
2023 Voice referendum: No 75.7
2007 Liberal majority over Labor: 0.2%
2010 Liberal majority over Labor: 2.2%
2013 Liberal majority over Labor: 6.3%
2016 Labor majority over Liberal: 0.0%
2019 Liberal majority over Labor: 8.4%
2022 Liberal majority over Labor: 11.8%
Status: Fairly safe Liberal
Liberal two-party vote 1983-2022
2022 results
Statistics and history
Division of Herbert
Herbert has existed since Federation, and once covered all of north Queensland. Since 1949 it has consisted of Townsville
and surrounding areas. The 2006 redistribution cut it back to the city and suburbs, making it an entirely urban seat for
the first time. It was unchanged by the 2018 redistribution. Townsville is a regional administrative centre and a booming
tourist town, so Herbert has a somewhat higher level of median family income than most regional seats, and also a high
proportion of government employees, including many defence personnel.
For most of its early history Herbert was a safe Labor seat, although its first Labor member retained it as a Nationalist
for most of the 1920s. In recent times, as Labor's regional base has declined, Herbert has trended Liberal, a process hastened
by the large military vote. Labor retains strength in the older parts of the city, and also among the Indigenous voters of
Palm Island, but Townsville's new outer suburbs tend to be more conservative. Labor lost the seat in 1966, and did not regain
it until 1983, when
Ted Lindsay won it in the Hawke landslide and held it until 1996.
Peter Lindsay (no relation) won the
seat for the Liberals in 1996, and retained it without too much difficulty until his retirement in 2010, when
Ewen Jones
retained it with a swing in his favour. He increased his majority in 2013.
In 2016, however, there was a sharp and unexpected swing to Labor, and after an epic count Herbert fell by 37 votes to
Labor's
Cathy O'Toole, who had also contested the seat in 2013. As Labor's most marginal seat, Herbert was hotly contested in
2019, and its loss in the anti-Labor sweep of regional Queensland was so surprise.
Phillip Thompson OAM, Liberal MP for Herbert since 2019, is a veteran of the Afghanistan war and was 2018 Young Queenslander of the Year. Having gained an 8% swing in 2019 and a further 3% in 2022, he is now probably fairly secure, although Labor won all the Townsville seats at the 2020 state election.
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