The 2001 Ryan by-election was held in the Australian electorate of Ryan in Queensland on 17 March 2001. The by-election was triggered by the retirement of the sitting member, the Liberal Party of Australia's John Moore, on 5 February 2001. The writ for the by-election was issued on 9 February 2001.
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John Moore had held Ryan for the Liberal Party since 1975, and he had been a minister in the Fraser and Howard governments. When a Cabinet reshuffle saw him lose the Defence portfolio, Moore resigned immediately.[1] His retirement was announced in the wake of Liberal defeats in the Western Australia and Queensland state elections, and the public reaction to the GST introduced eight months earlier was still worrying the Liberals.[2]
Comparisons were drawn with the 1975 by-election in the Tasmanian electorate of Bass: both had resulted from the resignation of a Defence Minister (Labor's Lance Barnard in 1975), and Labor's landslide loss in Bass was linked to the defeat of the Whitlam government several months later.[3]
The Liberals were expected to preselect Hong Kong-born lawyer Michael Johnson as their candidate for the by-election, although Johnson's Chinese heritage led to accusations of branch stacking by signing up ethnic Chinese as members of the Liberal Party. Eventually it emerged that Johnson had not properly renounced his British citizenship, and was ineligible to run as an electoral candidate in Australia.[4]
| Ryan by-election, 2001 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Liberal | Bob Tucker | 32,571 | 43.19 | -7.21 | |
| Labor | Leonie Short | 29,173 | 38.68 | +8.33 | |
| Greens | Mike Stasse | 4,608 | 6.11 | -2.28 | |
| Democrats | Lyn Dengate | 3,808 | 5.05 | -2.93 | |
| HEMP | Nigel Freemarijuana | 1,685 | 2.23 | +2.23 | |
| Independent | Jodi Moore | 1,351 | 1.79 | +1.79 | |
| Christian Democrats | Andrew Hassall | 955 | 1.27 | +1.27 | |
| Independent | Terry Hyland | 822 | 1.09 | +1.09 | |
| Independent | Warren Stagg | 440 | 0.58 | +0.58 | |
| Total formal votes | 75,413 | 97.04 | -0.65 | ||
| Informal votes | 2,304 | 2.96 | +0.65 | ||
| Turnout | 77,717 | 94.39 | -5.71 | ||
| Two-candidate preferred result | |||||
| Labor | Leonie Short | 37,834 | 50.17 | +9.69 | |
| Liberal | Bob Tucker | 37,579 | 49.83 | -9.69 | |
| Labor gain from Liberal | Swing | +9.69 | |||
Leonie Short won the seat for Labor in a close contest on preferences, with only 255 votes separating her from Liberal candidate Bob Tucker on a two-party basis. The loss was a huge worry for the Liberals, although Labor's electoral momentum was halted by their loss in the Aston by-election four months later.
Short contested the 2001 federal election, but was defeated by her Liberal opponent Michael Johnson, who had by then renounced his British citizenship.
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