Council margin – LNP 2.2%
Mayoral margin – LNP 2.9%
Incumbent councillor
Angela Owen, since 2016. Previously councillor for Parkinson 2008-2016.
Geography
Outer south of Brisbane. Calamvale covers the suburbs of Algester, Calamvale, Drewvale, Heathwood, Parkinson and Stretton, right on the southern border of the City of Brisbane.
History
Calamvale is a successor ward to Parkinson, which itself replaced Acacia Ridge ward in 2008.
Labor’s Kevin Bianchi had won Acacia Ridge in 1991, and retained his seat in 1994, 1997, 2000 and 2004, the last time with a 3.8% margin.
In 2008, Bianchi retired and the new Parkinson ward, with a notional Labor margin of 1.3%. Liberal candidate Angela Owen-Taylor (now Angela Owen) won Parkinson with a 7.6% swing, and in 2012 she was re-elected with a further 10.8% swing.
The ward was renamed “Calamvale” in 2016, and Owen was re-elected in 2016 and 2020.
- Angela Owen (Liberal National)
- Andrea Wildin (Greens)
- Emily Kim (Labor)
Assessment
Calamvale is a marginal seat.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Angela Owen | Liberal National | 11,887 | 48.3 | -10.7 |
| James Martin | Labor | 10,316 | 41.9 | +11.2 |
| Josie Mira | Greens | 2,393 | 9.7 | -0.5 |
| Informal | 692 | 2.7 |
2020 council two-candidate-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Angela Owen | Liberal National | 12,156 | 52.2 | -12.5 |
| James Martin | Labor | 11,113 | 47.8 | +12.5 |
| Exhausted | 1,327 | 5.4 |
2020 mayoral result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Adrian Schrinner | Liberal National | 8,604 | 44.8 | -11.3 |
| Pat Condren | Labor | 7,406 | 38.5 | +5.3 |
| Kath Angus | Greens | 1,600 | 8.3 | +2.8 |
| Karagh-Mae Kelly | Animal Justice | 787 | 4.1 | +4.1 |
| Frank Jordan | Independent | 250 | 1.3 | +1.3 |
| Jeff Hodges | Motorists Party | 213 | 1.1 | +1.1 |
| John Dobinson | Independent | 179 | 0.9 | +0.9 |
| Ben Gorringe | Independent | 100 | 0.5 | +0.5 |
| Jarrod Wirth | Independent | 83 | 0.4 | -0.2 |
| Informal | 619 | 3.1 |
2020 mayoral two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Adrian Schrinner | Liberal National | 9,058 | 52.9 | -8.9 |
| Pat Condren | Labor | 8,069 | 47.1 | +8.9 |
| Exhausted | 2,095 | 10.9 |
Calamvale only contains two significant booths so hasn’t been split up by sub-area. Instead I’ve reported those two booths separately and unified the other tiny booths as “others”.
Labor won a sizeable majority of the vote at both of those election day booths, and indeed at every election day booth. The LNP won a majority thanks to clear majorities in all the special vote categories, which made up a large majority of the vote in 2020.
| Voter group | GRN prim council | LNP 2PP council | LNP 2PP mayoral | Total votes | % of votes |
| Calamvale | 13.2 | 45.4 | 48.2 | 2,561 | 10.4 |
| Algester | 10.3 | 43.9 | 46.4 | 1,964 | 8.0 |
| Other votes | 10.1 | 53.8 | 49.0 | 7,854 | 31.9 |
| Postal | 8.8 | 54.9 | 57.2 | 6,775 | 27.5 |
| Pre-poll | 7.5 | 54.2 | 53.3 | 4,202 | 17.1 |
| Others | 12.1 | 48.0 | 47.7 | 1,240 | 5.0 |
Council election results in Calamvale at the 2020 Brisbane City Council election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal National Party, Labor and the Greens.
Mayoral election results in Calamvale at the 2020 Brisbane City Council election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal National Party and Labor.
Emily Kim, an electorate officer, has been announced as Labor’s candidate.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-05/labor-brisbane-mayoral-candidate-lawyer-tracey-price/102693176
Big swing to Labor here at the 2020 council election. This ward sits inside Jim Chalmers’ safe labor seat of Rankin, and he won all the booths overlapping this ward quite easily. I think this is the most likely ward to fall to Labor if any do fall their way. As Wilson’s article above indicates, Labor picked their candidate here in August 2023 so clearly it’s one of the wards they are taking more seriously.
How is this LNP held if all the booths recorded a TPP victory for Labor… I don’t believe postals are THAT strong for the Libs. Wouldn’t they have needed at least 60% or more?
Daniel, because 2020 was an election held during the COVID period, over 60% of votes were either Postals or prepolls. As a result, the Labor majority in the polling day votes can easily be swamped by the remaining vote being just 51% to the LNP.
This ended up being a real outlier in that there seems to have been a straight swing from LNP to Labor. The Green vote has barely moved and there were no other candidates.
Was there some particular local issue here that hurt the LNP (or benefited Labor)?
Mark, I think Labor were ‘smart’ enough to nominate a candidate of Asian background here. I think this ward alongside neighboring Runcorn are the ones that have an above average proportion of those from Asian ancestry, who have been seen as ‘weary’ of the Coalition due to their recent stance against China.