Psephos - Adam Carr's Election Archive

Adam Carr's Election Archive

Australian federal election, 2025
Division of Rankin, Queensland

Named for: Senator Hon Dame Annabelle Rankin (1908-86), Senator 1946-71, first woman departmental minister


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Southside Brisbane: Algester, Browns Plains, Springwood, Stretton, Woodridge

Enrolment at 2019 election: 103,570
Enrolment at 2022 election: 108,054 (+04.4)
1999 republic referendum: No 62.2
2018 same-sex marriage survey: Yes 54.6
2023 Voice referendum: No 64.7


Sitting member: Dr Hon Jim Chalmers (Labor): Elected 2013, 2016, 2019, 2022

Treasurer


2007 Labor majority over Liberal: 11.7%
2010 Labor majority over Liberal: 5.4%
2013 Labor majority over Liberal: 4.8%
2016 Labor majority over Liberal: 11.3%
2019 Labor majority over Liberal: 6.4%
2022 Labor majority over Liberal: 9.1%

Status: Fairly safe Labor
Labor two-party vote 1984-2022


  • 2022 results
  • Statistics and history

  • Announced candidates:

    Dr Hon Jim Chalmers
    Australian Labor Party

    Division of Rankin

    Rankin was created in 1984, and orginally extended from the south-western suburbs of Brisbane out into rural areas as far as Warwick. Subsequent redistributions have greatly reduced it in area and shifted it to the east, and it now occupies a block of suburbs in the fast-growing Logan region of southern Brisbane. It is a low-income mortgage belt seat, combining a below-average median family income level and a low proportion of people in professional and managerial occupations with a high level of families with dependent children and dwellings being purchased.

    Rankin has always been held by Labor but has rarely been secure. It was one of only two seats in Queensland retained by Labor in the Liberal landslide of 1996, but the 1998 redistrubution made it nominally Liberal, so Craig Emerson's retention of the seat that year counted as a Labor gain. The subsequent two redistributions have further weakened Labor's position. The seat now consists of three parts: strongly Liberal to the east of the Pacific Highway, strongly Labor in the central part area around Woodridge, and marginal at the western end around Algester and Stretton.

    Previous members for Rankin have been David Beddall, a minister in the Keating government, and Dr Craig Emerson, elected in 1998. Emerson was on the Labor front bench from 2001, but as a prominent Latham supporter he resigned after the 2004 defeat. He returned to the front bench in 2006 and was a minister through the Rudd-Gillard Government. He resigned in 2013 rather than serve under the returned Rudd, and retired at the 2013 election.

    Dr Jim Chalmers, Labor MP for Rankin since 2013, was executive director of the Chifley Research Centre, a Labor think-tank, before his election. He had previously been an adviser to several Labor ministers including Bob Carr and Wayne Swan. He went straight on to the opposition front bench after the 2013 election and was appointed shadow Treasurer after the 2019 election. When Bill Shorten resigned as Labor leader, Chalmers was seriously considered as his successor, but eventually yielded to Anthony Albanese. He has been Treasurer since the 2022 election.

    Boundaries following most recent redistribution:



    See full-size map of this Division



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