Queensland legislative election, 1986

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Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on November 1, 1986 to elect the 89 members of the state's Legislative Assembly.

The election resulted in a seventh consecutive victory for the National Party under Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen. It was the eleventh victory of the National Party in Queensland since it first came to office in 1957.

1 Prelude
2 Result
3 Results summary
4 Significance
5 References

[edit] Prelude

All three parties had high hopes for the election. The Nationals knew that they needed to increase their number of seats in order to hang onto Government (they had held a majority of one in the last Parliament, which had been increased from 82 seats to 89 for the 1986 election). The Liberals desperately needed to win back some of their losses from their disastrous performance in 1983, and Labor hoped to exploit disunity between the conservative parties to make gains.

The election was held under malaportioned boundaries (the ‘Bjelke-mander’, named after the term gerrymander), which had been redrawn in 1986 to further advantage the Government. Allegations of corruption against the Government were raised prior to the election, although they did not affect the result.

[edit] Result

The Bjelke-Petersen Government won a commanding victory, winning an extra eight seats and thus increasing its majority. The Liberals gained two seats, but were still nowhere near making up for their 1983 losses. Labor lost two seats.

[edit] Results summary

Legislative Assembly
Party		% of vote	Swing	Seats	Change
	Australian Labor Party	41.3	-3.5	30	-2
	Liberal Party of Australia	16.5	+1.6	10	+2
	The Nationals	39.6	+0.7	49	+8
	Other	2.5	+0.3	0	0

[edit] Significance

The 1986 election is significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, it saw the National Party retain a majority of seats in the Parliament. This was only the second election in Australian history (the other being the Queensland election of 1983) in which the National Party won enough seats to form Government in its own right.

More importantly, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s victory gave him the confidence to launch the ‘Joh for PM’ campaign, which would play a major part in the 1987 Federal Election, and would later be a major factor in his undoing.