2017 Queensland state election

2017 Queensland state election

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All 93 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland 47 Assembly seats are needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	87.52 ( 2.37 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk Tim Nicholls Robbie Katter Party Labor Liberal National Katter's Australian Leader since 28 March 2012 (2012-03-28) 6 May 2016 (2016-05-06) 2 February 2015 (2015-02-02) Leader's seat Inala Clayfield Traeger Last election 44 seats, 37.47% 42 seats, 41.32% 2 seats, 1.93% Seats before 41 41 2 Seats won 48 39 3 Seat change 7 2 1 Popular vote 957,890 911,019 62,613 Percentage 35.43% 33.69% 2.32% Swing 2.05 7.63 0.39 TPP 51.3% 48.7% TPP swing 0.2 0.2   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Steve Dickson No leader Party One Nation Greens Leader since 23 January 2017 (2017-01-23) Leader's seat Buderim (lost seat) Last election 0 seats, 0.92% 0 seats, 8.43% Seats before 1 0 Seats won 1 1 Seat change 1 Popular vote 371,193 270,263 Percentage 13.73% 10.00% Swing 12.81 1.57
Winning margin by electorate.
Premier before election Annastacia Palaszczuk Labor Elected Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk Labor

The 2017 Queensland state election was held on 25 November 2017 to elect all 93 members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, the unicameral Parliament of Queensland.^[1][2]

The first-term incumbent Labor government, led by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, won a second term in government. They were challenged by the Liberal National opposition, led by Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls and minor parties One Nation, Katter's Australian Party and the Greens. The 2015 election outcome had delivered a hung parliament with 44 seats to the Labor opposition, 42 seats to the one-term Liberal National government, and three to the crossbench including two to Katter's Australian Party. Just one seat short of majority government, Labor was able to form minority government with confidence and supply support from sole independent MP Peter Wellington, who otherwise retained the right to vote on conscience. During the parliamentary term, Labor MPs Billy Gordon and Rob Pyne became independent MPs, however they both indicated they would provide confidence and supply support for the government.^[3][4]

Amendments to electoral laws increased the number of seats by four from 89 to 93 and changed the optional preferential voting system to compulsory full-preferential voting.^[5] A 2016 referendum also replaced the state's unfixed maximum three-year terms with fixed four-year terms, but these would not apply until the 2020 election.^[6][7] The day after the election, ABC election analyst Antony Green predicted that Labor would win up to 48 seats and was likely to form government in its own right.^[8] By 6 December, several news agencies reported that Labor had won a majority of seats in the Parliament.^[9][10][11] With the redistribution increasing the size of parliament from 89 seats to 93 seats, Labor increased its representation by a net seven seats to a total of 48 seats, an increase of four since the last election and a notional increase of one since the redistribution, allowing it to form government in its own right by two seats. The Liberal National opposition decreased their representation by a net three seats to a total of 39 seats, a decrease of two seats since the last election and a notional decrease of five since the redistribution. On the crossbench, Katter's Australian Party won three seats, an increase of one since the last election and a notional increase of two since the redistribution, one new independent candidate won a seat while all the incumbent independents lost their seats. One Nation won its first seat since 2009 and the Greens won a seat at a state election for the first time.^[12]

Despite a small two-party swing to Labor statewide and Labor increasing its seat total, a number of regional seats notably swung to the Coalition. The LNP regained the seat of Bundaberg from Labor as well as Burdekin which was held by the LNP prior to the election but made notionally Labor due to redistribution.

On 8 December 2017, Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls conceded defeat and announced he would step down as leader of the party.^[13] Later that day, Palaszczuk visited Government House and was invited to form a majority government by the Governor.^[14] The Second Palaszczuk Ministry was subsequently sworn in by the Governor on 12 December 2017.^[15] This marked the tenth time in the last eleven elections that Queensland Labor has won government; it won eight consecutive election victories from 1989 to 2009, and was only out of government from 1996 to 1998 when Labor lost its parliamentary majority as well as from 2012 to 2015 following the Liberal National Party's 2012 landslide win.