Queenslanders yesterday voted in a referendum on whether the state Parliamentary terms should be extended from three to four years, and that election dates should be fixed on a date in October.
The result was close, but the referendum passed. At the time of writing, Yes has 53.15% of the vote.
Yes is currently winning a majority of the vote in 72 out of 89 districts, and has won in every region of Queensland.
The following clickable map shows the vote in each of the 89 state electoral districts:
I keep looking at this map trying to figure our – what’s the pattern? They don’t align to typical party affiliation or regional relationships.
It’s interesting that while KAP were the only party to oppose 4 year terms, Mount Isa voted strongly Yes, while Dalrymple voted more strongly No than any other seat (55.1%).
The two strongest Yes votes were in Inala (60.99%) and Surfers Paradise (64.75%) (two seats which have remarkably little in common).
My summary is this:
Yes strongly swept through the Gold Coast, Cairns and southern Brisbane (Logan, Ipswich and southern BCC), with thorough wins across all of BCC and most regional centres (Bundaberg, Gladstone, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville)
No seems to have been strongest in outer urban and regional seats near major centres. So they had wins across Redlands, most of Moreton Bay, and the Sunshine Coast hinterland, in addition to the Darling Downs and the Burnett.
I think the lack of a proper campaign on the referendum itself and agreement between the major parties has probably been what’s caused these unusual results.
There’s some correlation between the No vote and the One Nation vote in 1998 / 2001 – quite a few of the No seats were won by by them in those years (Lockyer, Nanango, Maryborough, Gympie, Hinchinbrook, and the successors to Tablelands and Caboolture – they also came close in Callide).
Then again, Thuringowa, Whitsunday and Mulgrave had strong Yes votes, while One Nation didn’t come anywhere near winning around Redlands.
Yeah, One Nation was the closest comparison I could think of as well, but Redlands and Cairns areas really threw me (in opposite directions).
There might be more local factors at play in these areas – With Redlands in particular, there’s at least a 3 point swing compared to neighbouring BCC seats.
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