Dickson – Australia 2025

LNP 1.7%

Incumbent MP
Peter Dutton, since 2001.

Geography
Dickson covers the north-western suburbs of Brisbane and adjoining rural areas. It covers most of the former Pine Rivers Shire, now included in the Moreton Bay Council. Suburbs include Ferny Hills, Albany Creek, Strathpine, Petrie and Kallangur. Further west it includes areas such as Dayboro, Mount Samson and Samford Village.

History
Dickson was created for the 1993 election, though it was not filled until a supplementary election a month after the general election following the death of an independent candidate during the campaign. It was won for the ALP by Michael Lavarch, who transferred to the seat from Fisher, which he had represented since 1987, defeating the Liberal candidate, future Queensland state Liberal Party leader Dr Bruce Flegg.

Lavarch served as Attorney-General in the Keating government, but was defeated in the 1996 landslide by Liberal Tony Smith.

Smith lost the Liberal endorsement for the 1998 election and recontested the seat as an Independent. A leakage of preferences from his 9% primary vote presumably assisted the narrow, 176-vote victory by ALP star recruit, former Democrats leader Cheryl Kernot.

Kernot was defeated in 2001 by the Liberals’ Peter Dutton, who has held the seat ever since.

Peter Dutton has held his seat ever since. He served as a junior minister in the final term of the Howard government and as a senior minister in the Coalition government from 2013 until 2022. After the Coalition’s defeat at the 2022 election, he was elected as leader of the opposition.

Candidates

  • Suniti Hewett (Family First)
  • Ali France (Labor)
  • Vinnie Batten (Greens)
  • Joel Stevenson (One Nation)
  • Peter Dutton (Liberal National)
  • Michael Jessop (Trumpet of Patriots)
  • Ellie Smith (Independent)
  • David Zaloudek (Legalise Cannabis)
  • Maureen Brohman (Animal Justice)
  • Assessment
    Dickson is quite a marginal seat and it is worth watching. Labor did quite poorly in Queensland in 2022 compared to other states. If they benefit from incumbency they could pick up a substantial amount of ground in Queensland.

    It’s also worth noting that Dutton has increased his profile now as leader of his party, which will probably improve his position in his local seat.

    2022 result

    Candidate Party Votes % Swing
    Peter Dutton Liberal National 41,657 42.1 -3.9
    Ali France Labor 31,396 31.7 +0.4
    Vinnie Batten Greens 12,871 13.0 +3.0
    Tamera Gibson One Nation 5,312 5.4 +0.2
    Alina Karen Ward United Australia 2,717 2.7 +0.5
    Alan Buchbach Independent 2,222 2.2 +2.2
    Thor Prohaska Independent 1,618 1.6 -0.7
    Lloyd Russell Liberal Democrats 1,236 1.2 +1.3
    Informal 3,996 3.9 -0.5

    2022 two-party-preferred result

    Candidate Party Votes % Swing
    Peter Dutton Liberal National 51,196 51.7 -2.9
    Ali France Labor 47,833 48.3 +2.9

    Booth breakdown

    Booths have been divided into three areas. Most of the population lies on the urban fringe along the eastern edge of the seat. These booths have been split between north-east and south-east. The remaining booths have been grouped as ‘west’.

    The Liberal National Party won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in the south-east (51.1%) and the west (54.7%), as well as on the pre-poll and other votes. Labor won 52.5% in the north-east.

    The Greens came third, with a primary vote ranging from 13.2% in the north-east to 18% in the west, but just 11.7% on the pre-poll.

    Voter group GRN prim LNP 2PP Total votes % of votes
    North-East 13.2 47.5 16,958 17.1
    South-East 15.8 51.1 14,310 14.5
    West 18.0 54.7 4,621 4.7
    Pre-poll 11.7 52.3 38,111 38.5
    Other votes 12.4 53.4 25,029 25.3

    Election results in Dickson at the 2022 federal election
    Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal National Party, Labor and the Greens.

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    412 COMMENTS

    1. Well they dropped a lot of stuff on the Labor candidate today in the media and she has been a candidate in this seat before. So the LNP might be worried to leak what they did.

    2. Today’s Welcome to Country at the Dawn Service was booed. As menntioned upthread Dutton is a cultural warrior but on racial/nationalitic issues such as Welcome to Country, indigenous flags etc he does not really focus on LGBT issues, Abortion etc.

    3. Ali France picked up 16,437 preference votes in 2022, still 1683 short of sending Dutton home. That was a high water election for Labor here, but the lesson from 2022 is the Teal strategy can work in LNP seats. That’s the only way Dutton can be defeated in Dickson this time, so i’d say it’s worth a shot, since Climate 200 has no shortage of funds to throw around.

    4. People above mentioning the leaking of historical social media posts of the Labor candidate Ali France

    5. She’s been the ALP candidate now for the past three elections. The fact that stuff is ‘leaking’ just now implies those looking for dirt on her are lazy, inept, desperate, or all three.

    6. Why would the LNP raise Ali France’s historical internet commentary now when it’s always been publicly accessible and they haven’t raised it previously?
      It just feeds into a perception that “politics needs to be done differently”:
      Similar to “nazis” “gatecrashing” Ryan’s event in Melbourne and “nazis” booing at a Dawn Service”.
      I think these”nazis” are gonna be busy the next 7 days, then disappear until another election comes around.

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