Stafford – QLD 2017

ALP 9.3%

Incumbent MP
Anthony Lynham, since 2014.

Geography
Brisbane. Stafford covers the northern Brisbane suburbs of Stafford, Stafford Heights, Grange, Newmarket, Wilston, Kedron, Chermside and parts of Alderley, Lutwyche, and Wavell Heights.

Redistribution
Stafford lost Gordon Park to Clayfield, and gained the remainder of Newmarket and Wilston from Brisbane Central, the remainder of Kedron from Clayfield, and the remainder of Chermside and western parts of Wavell Heights from Nudgee. These changes cut the Labor margin from 9.6% to 9.3%.

History
The seat of Stafford was first created in 1972. It was abolished in 1992 before being restored in 2001. The seat was a marginal seat throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was held by Labor from 2001 to 2012, and again since the 2014 by-election.

The seat was first won in 1972 by William Harvey. He was defeated by the Liberal Party’s Terry Gygar in the 1974 landslide election.

Gygar held the seat at the 1977 and 1980 elections before losing in 1983 to the ALP’s Denis Murphy. Murphy was diagnosed with cancer and died in 1984 without ever speaking in Parliament.

Gygar regained his seat at the 1984 by-election, and held it until 1989.

Rod Welford won the seat for the Labor Party in 1989. When Stafford was abolished in 1992 he moved to the neighbouring seat of Everton. He held Everton until his retirement in 2009. He also served as a minister in the Beattie and Bligh governments from 1998 to 2009.

The ALP’s Terry Sullivan won the newly restored seat of Stafford in 2001. Sullivan had first been elected at the 1991 Nundah by-election. Nundah was abolished in 1992, and Sullivan moved to the new seat of Chermside. This seat was also abolished in 2001, and Sullivan moved to Stafford. He retired in 2006.

Stirling Hinchliffe, also of the ALP, won the seat in 2006, and retained it in 2009.

In 2012, Hinchliffe lost his seat to LNP candidate Chris Davis. Davis was appointed as Assistant Minister for Health in the new LNP government. In May 2014 he was sacked as a minister due to numerous public disagreements with his colleagues. Later that month, he resigned from the Parliament in protest at the direction of the Newman LNP government.

The July 2014 by-election was easily won by Labor candidate Anthony Lynham, benefiting from a 19% swing back to Labor. Lynham was re-elected in 2015.

Candidates

• Anthony Lynham (Labor)
• Ed Sangjitphun (Liberal National)
• John Meyer (Greens)

Assessment
Stafford will likely remain in Labor hands.

2015 election result

2015 two-party-preferred result

Booth breakdown

Booths in Stafford have been divided into three areas: central, north and south.

The ALP won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 56.7% in the south to 62% in the north.

The Greens came third, with a vote ranging from 12.7% in the north to 16.7% in the south.

Election results in Stafford at the 2015 QLD state election
Click on the ‘visible layers’ box to toggle between two-party-preferred votes and Greens primary votes.