1972 Queensland state election

Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 27 May 1972 to elect the 82 members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland.^[1]

1972 Queensland state election

← 1969 27 May 1972 (1972-05-27) 1974 →
All 82 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland 42 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	92.41 ( 0.64 pp)
First party Second party Third party   QLP Leader Joh Bjelke-Petersen Jack Houston No leader Party Country–Liberal Coalition Labor Queensland Labor Leader since 8 August 1968 12 October 1966 (1966-10-12) Leader's seat Barambah Bulimba Last election 45 seats, 44.70% 31 seats, 44.99% 1 seat, 7.24% Seats won 47 33 0 Seat change 2 2 1 Popular vote 383,000 424,002 69,757 Percentage 42.23% 46.75% 7.69% Swing 2.47 1.76 0.46
Premier before election Joh Bjelke-Petersen Country/Liberal coalition Elected Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen Country/Liberal coalition

The Country-Liberal Coalition won its sixth consecutive victory since it won government in 1957 and also its second victory under Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

Key dates

Date	Event
18 April 1972	The Legislative Assembly was dissolved.[2]
18 April 1972	Writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.[3]
27 April 1972	Close of nominations.
27 May 1972	Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.[4]
20 June 1972	The Bjelke-Petersen Ministry was reconstituted.[5]
24 June 1972	The writ was returned and the results formally declared.[6]
10 July 1972	Deadline for return of the writs.
1 August 1972	Parliament resumed for business.[7]

Results

See also: Results of the Queensland state election, 1972

Queensland state election, 27 May 1972 Legislative Assembly << 1969–1974 >>
Enrolled voters		997,489
Votes cast		921,763		Turnout	92.41%	+0.64%
Informal votes		15,566		Informal	1.61%	-0.18%
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor	424,002	46.75%	+1.76%	33	+ 2
	Liberal	201,596	22.23%	-1.45%	21	+ 2
	Country	181,404	20.00%	-1.02%	26	± 0
	Queensland Labor	69,757	7.69%	+0.46%	0	- 1
	Independent	30,187	3.33%	+0.48%	2	+ 1
Total		906,946			82

Popular vote Labor   46.75% Liberal   22.23% Country   20.00% Democratic Labor   7.69% Independents   3.33%

Seats Labor   40.24% Country   31.71% Liberal   25.61% Independents   2.44%

Seats changing hands

Seat	Pre-1972				Swing	Post-1972
	Party		Member	Margin		Margin	Member	Party
Albert ¶		Liberal	Bill Heatley*	0.5	-4.6	4.1	Bill D'Arcy	Labor
Ipswich		Labor	notional - new seat	4.5	-5.7	1.2	Llew Edwards	Liberal
Mackay		Labor	Ed Casey	6.7	-20.1	13.4	Ed Casey	Independent

• ¶ Results for Albert based on 1970 by-election
• Bill Heatley died in October 1971, but no by-election was called due to the proximity of the 1972 election.
• In addition, the Liberal Party retained Maryborough, which was won from Labor at the 1971 by-election.
• Aubigny, which was the last seat held by the Democratic Labor Party, was abolished at this election and its outgoing member, Les Diplock, retired.

Post-election pendulum

Country/Liberal seats (47)
Marginal
Murrumba	Des Frawley	CP	1.0%
Ipswich	Llew Edwards	LIB	1.2%
Kurilpa	Clive Hughes	LIB	1.5%
Condamine	Vic Sullivan	CP	1.8% v IND
Mansfield	Bill Kaus	LIB	2.0%
Wavell	Arthur Crawford	LIB	2.0%
Hinchinbrook	Ted Row	CP	2.5%
Mount Gravatt	Geoff Chinchen	CP	2.5%
Gregory	Wally Rae	CP	2.6%
Maryborough	Gilbert Alison	LIB	3.8%
Nundah	William Knox	LIB	3.9%
Yeronga	Norm Lee	LIB	4.3%
Ashgrove	Douglas Tooth	LIB	4.8%
Greenslopes	Keith Hooper	LIB	5.0%
Chatsworth	Bill Hewitt	LIB	5.1%
Windsor	Bob Moore	LIB	5.1%
Redcliffe	Jim Houghton	CP	5.4%
Ithaca	Col Miller	LIB	5.6%
Carnarvon	Henry McKechnie	CP	5.9%
Fairly safe
Whitsunday	Ron Camm	CP	6.9%
Clayfield	John Murray	LIB	8.2%
Aspley	Fred Campbell	LIB	8.3%
Mulgrave	Roy Armstrong	CP	8.4%
Merthyr	Don Lane	LIB	9.1%
Burdekin	Val Bird	CP	9.2%
Surfers Paradise	Bruce Small	CP	9.6%
Flinders	Bill Longeran	CP	9.7%
Gympie	Max Hodges	CP	9.7%
Sherwood	John Herbert	LIB	9.8%
Safe
Callide	Lindsay Hartwig	CP	10.3%
Townsville	Norman Scott-Young	LIB	11.5%
Warwick	David Cory	CP	11.5%
South Coast	Russ Hinze	CP	11.7%
Mirani	Tom Newbery	CP	12.1%
Lockyer	Gordon Chalk	LIB	12.2%
Toowong	Charles Porter	LIB	13.0%
Auburn	Neville Hewitt	CP	13.4%
Roma	Ken Tomkins	CP	14.0%
Balonne	Don Neal	CP	15.6%
Fassifern	Selwyn Muller	CP	15.7%
Landsborough	Michael Ahern	CP	15.7%
Cooroora	David Low	CP	15.8%
Mount Coot-tha	Bill Lickiss	LIB	16.0%
Somerset	Bill Gunn	CP	16.3%
Very safe
Burnett	Claude Wharton	CP	20.5%
Barambah	Joh Bjelke-Petersen	CP	23.7%
Cunningham	Alan Fletcher	CP	26.4%

Labor seats (33)
Marginal
Rockhampton North	Les Yewdale	ALP	1.1%
Belyando	Eugene O'Donnell	ALP	1.3%
Stafford	Roy Harvey	ALP	1.6%
Townsville West	Perc Tucker	ALP	2.2%
Barron River	Bill Wood	ALP	3.4%
Albert	Bill D'Arcy	ALP	4.1%
Cook	Edwin Wallis-Smith	ALP	4.2%
Redlands	Ted Baldwin	ALP	5.1%
Rockhampton	Keith Wright	ALP	5.9%
Fairly safe
Pine Rivers	Kenneth Leese	ALP	6.8%
Toowoomba South	Peter Wood	ALP	6.9%
Mourilyan	Peter Moore	ALP	7.2%
Everton	Gerry Jones	ALP	8.3%
Isis	Jim Blake	ALP	8.3%
Brisbane	Brian Davis	ALP	9.7%
Safe
South Brisbane	Fred Bromley	ALP	11.0%
Ipswich West	Vi Jordan	ALP	11.5%
Warrego	Jack Aiken	ALP	13.4%
Sandgate	Harold Dean	ALP	13.6%
Baroona	Pat Hanlon	ALP	14.1%
Wynnum	Edward Harris	ALP	14.5%
Belmont	Fred Newton	ALP	14.5%
Toowoomba North	Ray Bousen	ALP	14.9%
Nudgee	Jack Melloy	ALP	15.4%
Bulimba	Jack Houston	ALP	15.6%
Mount Isa	Alex Inch	ALP	16.4%
Salisbury	Doug Sherrington	ALP	16.7%
Cairns	Ray Jones	ALP	18.8%
Bundaberg	Lou Jensen	ALP	18.9% v DLP
Lytton	Tom Burns	ALP	19.3%
Very safe
Wolston	Evan Marginson	ALP	20.3%
Archerfield	Kevin Hooper	ALP	23.3%
Port Curtis	Martin Hanson	ALP	32.2% v DLP
Crossbench seats (2)
Townsville South	Tom Aikens	IND	7.6% v ALP
Mackay	Ed Casey	IND	13.4% v ALP

See also

• Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1969–1972
• Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1972–1974
• Candidates of the Queensland state election, 1972
• Bjelke-Petersen Ministry

References

1. "Parliament of Queensland, Legislative Assembly election results for 27 May 1972". Australian Politics and Elections Archive 1856-2018. University of Western Australia. Archived from the original on 10 April 2020. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
2. "A Proclamation". Queensland Government Gazette. 18 April 1972. p. 239:1719.
3. "Extraordinary". Queensland Government Gazette. 18 April 1972. p. 239:1721.
4. Partridge, Des (27 May 1972). "State election will be tonight's scene-stealer". The Courier-Mail. p. 10.
5. "Extraordinary". Queensland Government Gazette. 20 June 1972. p. 240:971–974.
6. "Notices of Results of General Election". Queensland Government Gazette. 24 June 1972. p. 240:1067–1081.
7. "A Proclamation". Queensland Government Gazette. 22 June 1972. p. 240:979.