| Bundaberg Queensland—Legislative Assembly | |||||||||||||||
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 Map of the electoral district of Bundaberg, 2017 | |||||||||||||||
| State | Queensland | ||||||||||||||
| MP | Tom Smith | ||||||||||||||
| Party | Labor | ||||||||||||||
| Namesake | Bundaberg | ||||||||||||||
| Electors | 35,296 (2020) | ||||||||||||||
| Area | 108 km2 (41.7 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
| Demographic | Provincial | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 24°52′S153°20′E / 24.867°S 153.333°E /-24.867; 153.333 | ||||||||||||||
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Bundaberg is an electoral district of theLegislative Assembly of Queensland in centralQueensland, Australia. It covers the city ofBundaberg, as well as the immediate surrounding area.[1]
The electoral district of Bundaberg was created by theElectoral Districts Act of 1887 which abolished the electoral district of Mulgrave that had included the Bundaberg area.[1] The first election held in the seat of Bundaberg was the1888 election.
The city's urban population has long made the seat a Labor stronghold; it was in Labor hands for all but a few years from 1892 to 2006, even during the height ofJoh Bjelke-Petersen's popularity. This changed in 2005 when the practices of rogue surgeonJayant Patel at the Bundaberg Base Hospital were uncovered. TheBeattie government was seriously embarrassed by the subsequent Commissions of Inquiry into the matter, and as a result the seat fell to the Nationals. It became a Liberal National seat with the conservative parties' merger in 2008, and stayed in LNP hands for all but one term until 2020.
In2020, the Labor Party won the seat by nine votes.[2] It is currently an extremelymarginal seat. Labor retained the seat in 2024 (although it lost government) and picked up a small swing in its favour.
| Member | Party | Term | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walter Adams | Conservative | 1888–1890 | |
| Ministerial | 1890–1892 | ||
| George Hall | Labour | 1892–1893 | |
| Michael Duffy | Ministerial | 1893–1896 | |
| Thomas Glassey | Labour | 1896–1901 | |
| George Barber | Labor | 1901–1935 | |
| Bernard McLean | Labor | 1935–1941 | |
| Frank Barnes | Andrew Fisher Labor | 1941–1944 | |
| Frank Barnes Labor | 1944–1950 | ||
| Ted Walsh | Labor | 1950–1957 | |
| Queensland Labor | 1957–1963 | ||
| Independent | 1963–1969 | ||
| Lou Jensen | Labor | 1969–1976 | |
| Independent | 1976–1977 | ||
| Jim Blake | Labor | 1977–1983 | |
| Clem Campbell | Labor | 1983–1998 | |
| Nita Cunningham | Labor | 1998–2006 | |
| Jack Dempsey | National | 2006–2008 | |
| Liberal National | 2008–2015 | ||
| Leanne Donaldson | Labor | 2015–2017 | |
| David Batt | Liberal National | 2017–2020 | |
| Tom Smith | Labor | 2020–present | |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labor | Tom Smith | 13,253 | 41.47 | −1.73 | |
| Liberal National | Bree Watson | 12,262 | 38.37 | −3.17 | |
| One Nation | Alberto Carvalho | 2,451 | 7.67 | +1.87 | |
| Legalise Cannabis | Ian Zunker | 1,857 | 5.81 | +0.31 | |
| Greens | Nat Baker | 1,089 | 3.41 | +0.21 | |
| Independent | Geoff Warham | 603 | 1.89 | +1.89 | |
| Independent | Alan Corbett | 442 | 1.38 | +1.38 | |
| Total formal votes | 31,957 | 95.02 | −1.46 | ||
| Informal votes | 1,676 | 4.98 | +1.46 | ||
| Turnout | 33,633 | 88.57 | −0.33 | ||
| Two-party-preferred result | |||||
| Labor | Tom Smith | 16,460 | 51.51 | +1.51 | |
| Liberal National | Bree Watson | 15,497 | 48.49 | −1.51 | |
| Laborhold | Swing | +1.51 | |||