| Fairfax AustralianHouse of RepresentativesDivision | |
|---|---|
  Interactive map of boundaries since the2019 federal election | |
| Created | 1984 |
| MP | Ted O'Brien |
| Party | Liberal Party[a] |
| Namesake | Ruth Fairfax |
| Electors | 123,413 (2022) |
| Area | 1,004 km2 (387.6 sq mi) |
| Demographic | Provincial |
TheDivision of Fairfax is anAustralian Electoral Division inQueensland. The current MP isTed O'Brien of theLiberal Party.
Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by theAustralian Electoral Commission. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.[1]
The division was created in 1984 and is named afterRuth Fairfax, founder of theCountry Women's Association. It is located in theSunshine Coast region north ofBrisbane and includes the towns ofCoolum,Yaroomba,Marcoola,Mudjimba,Maroochydore,Buderim,Woombye,Bli Bli,Yandina,Nambour,Mapleton,Kenilworth andEumundi.[2]
While the Sunshine Coast is traditionally a conservative area, Fairfax is located in a particularly conservative portion of the Sunshine Coast, and so has always been held by a centre-right party.[citation needed] Originally a safe seat for theNational Party, demographic change has made it equally safe for theLiberal Party.[citation needed]
The electorate came to national attention at the2013 federal election, whenClive Palmer, the founder of thePalmer United Party, narrowly won it by 53 votes.[citation needed] Before then, theCoalition's hold on the seat had only been seriously threatened twice, in1998 and2007. At all other times, it was a safe, or fairly safe, Coalition seat.[citation needed]
Palmer did not run for re-election, and it was widely expected that the seat would revert to the mergedLiberal National Party because, in 2013, LNP would have retained it easily in a "traditional"two-party-preferred vote contest withLabor.[citation needed] As expected, Palmer's 2013 opponent,Ted O'Brien, won the seat resoundingly at the2016 federal election and has held it without serious difficulty since.[citation needed]
| Image | Member | Party | Term | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Evan Adermann (1927–2001) | Nationals | 1 December 1984 – 19 February 1990 | Previously held the Division ofFisher. Retired | |
 | Alex Somlyay (1946–) | Liberal | 24 March 1990 – 5 August 2013 | Served as Minister underHoward. Retired | |
 | Clive Palmer (1954–) | Palmer United | 7 September 2013 – 9 May 2016 | Retired | |
 | Ted O'Brien (1974–) | Liberal[a] | 2 July 2016 – present | Incumbent |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal National | Ted O'Brien | 46,551 | 44.91 | −4.71 | |
| Labor | Sue Ferguson | 22,662 | 21.86 | +0.38 | |
| Greens | Sue Etheridge | 13,862 | 13.37 | +0.78 | |
| One Nation | Nikki Civitarese | 6,798 | 6.56 | −1.29 | |
| United Australia | Lisa Khoury | 6,132 | 5.92 | +2.86 | |
| Animal Justice | Tash Poole | 2,182 | 2.10 | +2.10 | |
| Informed Medical Options | Wendy Hazelton | 1,997 | 1.93 | +1.93 | |
| Independent | Barry Smith | 1,423 | 1.37 | +1.37 | |
| Great Australian | Craig White | 1,319 | 1.27 | +1.27 | |
| Independent | Sinim Australie | 733 | 0.71 | −0.64 | |
| Total formal votes | 103,659 | 94.47 | +0.90 | ||
| Informal votes | 6,066 | 5.53 | −0.90 | ||
| Turnout | 109,725 | 88.99 | −2.45 | ||
| Two-party-preferred result | |||||
| Liberal National | Ted O'Brien | 61,108 | 58.95 | −4.49 | |
| Labor | Sue Ferguson | 42,551 | 41.05 | +4.49 | |
| Liberal Nationalhold | Swing | −4.49 | |||
Y indicates at what stage the winning candidate had over 50% of the votes and was declared the winner. | Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found onPhabricator and onMediaWiki.org. |
| Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found onPhabricator and onMediaWiki.org. |
26°35′10″S152°53′17″E / 26.586°S 152.888°E /-26.586; 152.888