ALP 13.7%
Incumbent MP
Julie Collins, since 2007.
Geography
Franklin covers the southern parts of Tasmania and the eastern suburbs of Hobart. The seat is divided into two parts, with each covering half of the voters in the electorate. Half live on the eastern shore of the Derwent River in Clarence and Brighton LGAs, while the other half lives to the south and west of Hobart in Kingborough and Huon Valley LGAs.
Franklin was created for the 1903 election. The seat was first held by William McWilliams, who was a member at various times of the minor Revenue Tariff party, the Free Traders, the Commonwealth Liberal Party and the Nationalists, before becoming the first leader of the Country Party in 1920. He lost his seat in 1922 to the Nationalist candidate. He won the seat back as an independent in 1928 and retained it at the 1929 election but died shortly after the declaration of the poll.
The by-election was won by Charles Frost of the ALP, who lost his seat in 1931 to the United Australia Party before winning it back in 1934. He went on to serve as Minister for Repatriation under John Curtin before he lost the seat to Charles Falkinder of the Liberal Party in 1946. Falkinder held the seat until his retirement in 1966, and Ray Sherry of the ALP won the seat in 1969. Sherry lost the seat to Bruce Goodluck in 1975. Goodluck held the seat for the Liberal Party until he was defeated by Harry Quick in 1993.
Quick held the seat until the 2007 election, and he announced his impending retirement in 2005. He caused controversy in 2006 by endorsing a Greens candidate, sitting MP Nick McKim, for the state seat of Franklin in the state election. The ALP originally preselected Electrical Trades Union official Kevin Harkins, Quick openly criticised Harkins and was seen to be supporting Liberal candidate Vanessa Goodwin. Harkins was eventually replaced as the ALP candidate by ALP state secretary Julie Collins, and Quick was expelled from the ALP, supposedly for not paying his membership fees.
Collins won Franklin at the 2007 election, and has since won five more terms. Collins has served as Minister for Housing and Homelessness since the 2022 federal election.
Assessment
Franklin is a safe Labor seat.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Julie Collins | Labor | 26,147 | 36.7 | -7.3 |
| Kristy Maree Johnson | Liberal | 19,048 | 26.7 | -4.5 |
| Jade Darko | Greens | 12,370 | 17.4 | +1.1 |
| Chris Hannan | Jacqui Lambie Network | 4,215 | 5.9 | +5.9 |
| Anna Bateman | Local Party | 3,535 | 5.0 | +5.0 |
| Steve Hindley | One Nation | 2,033 | 2.9 | +2.9 |
| Duane Pitt | Liberal Democrats | 1,434 | 2.0 | +2.0 |
| Lisa Matthews | United Australia | 1,380 | 1.9 | -4.8 |
| Katrina Love | Animal Justice | 1,097 | 1.5 | +1.5 |
| Informal | 3,696 | 4.9 | +1.8 |
2022 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Julie Collins | Labor | 45,392 | 63.7 | +1.5 |
| Kristy Maree Johnson | Liberal | 25,867 | 36.3 | -1.5 |
Booths have been divided into three areas, along local government boundaries: Clarence, to the east of Hobart; Kingborough to the south of Hobart; and Huon Valley in the south-west. While Huon Valley covers a large area stretching to the south-western corner of Tasmania, all of the polling places lay at the eastern edge of the council area.
The ALP won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 62.6% in Huon Valley to 66.8% in Clarence.
The Greens primary vote ranged from 16.1% in Clarence to 21.4% in Kingborough.
| Voter group | GRN prim | ALP 2PP | Total votes | % of votes |
| Clarence | 16.1 | 66.8 | 22,673 | 31.8 |
| Kingborough | 21.4 | 64.6 | 11,433 | 16.0 |
| Huon Valley | 19.4 | 62.6 | 7,259 | 10.2 |
| Pre-poll | 16.6 | 62.2 | 16,391 | 23.0 |
| Other votes | 15.9 | 60.1 | 13,503 | 18.9 |
Election results in Franklin at the 2022 federal election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for Labor, the Liberal Party and the Greens.
ABC reports that Bob Brown is urging people to vote for George – makes things interesting if they do
Liberal HTVC available yet?
@ maxim yes go back a few comments a link has already been posted
The Greens been outplayed here?
Reminds me a little of the 1985 Sherwood [Qld] by election, Liberals had left the coalition in 1983, Nationals picked a star candidate, he just missed the 5 pm closing time for nominations, the fee had already been paid.
Does anyone know how will votes for Fitzgerald work if he has withdrawn due to ineligibility but still on the ballot? Would votes for him still count or not?
By “withdrawing” they just mean he won’t be campaigning. He’s still on the ballot as with any other candidate.
George’s stock just went up. He will be finishing at least 3rd on primary votes now
Cheers for the info Ben. Would be interesting to see how much of the Greens vote is picked up by either of the independents – especially George.
Though I also have another question: hypothetically, what would happen if an known ineligible candidate wins a seat during a federal election? Do the AEC decide to run a by-election like they did for the 2017/18 eligibility crisis?
It would need to be referred to the Court of Disputed Returns, but yes if it was in the House it would trigger a by-election.
I have to imagine everything would happen as per normal for every other electorate and if/when it’s referred to the court of disputed returns they would look into it to see if they actually were ineligible then call the election void and have a re-vote.
But until the Court decided they would just sit as per normal.
@malben the high court would rule him ineligble and a by-election would be held.
@Maxim Collins 4 George 5. Collins retain looking likely
im gonna say Lbabor retain on a 4% margin v george if he makes the count but i think the libs will probably make the cut on onp and blomeleys preferenes.
Since the Greens have stopped campaigning, most of the lost Greens votes would be expected to go to George. Some Greens volunteers may also switch to campaigning for George. JLN, Local Party and AJP contested Franklin in 2022 but were not contesting Franklin in 2025. The combined primary votes of these parties at the last election was 29.8%, higher than the Liberal Party primary vote. Brendan Blomeley is an ex-Liberal and he will undoubtably attract some Liberal vote. If George can consolidate most of the votes for these parties in 2022 into votes for him, he has a good chance of outpolling the Liberal Party and make 2CP. However, even if he does make 2CP, since preferences of the Liberal Party, Brendan Blomeley and One Nation won’t favour him over Labor, Labor should still retain the seat, although likely with a small margin.
Blameless as the mayor of Clarence will probably attract some of the Labor vote too. @joseph agreed unless people defy the htv he can’t win. One nation have preferences Collins can anyone find blomeleys?
Joseph without jln contesting seats in the lower house and directing preferences Labor have no hope of winning braddon or Lyons in my opinion conversely it also may hurt bridget archer in bass. Lambie has said this will be her last election if she loses the jln will be dead. She has no legacy like Katter or Hanson it all ends with her. If she wins well the libs only need to wait until her seats come back to them or at least their side of politics.
Any chance Labor doesn’t make the 2CP here? If Labor drops 5% between George and the Libs and the rw minor vote mostly goes among them, it’s possible, no?
it is entirely possible yes, the lib 2pp was 36% so yes it is possible the lib makes the count against george but george would win on labor preferences.
Presumably Brendan Blomely will take some of the Lib vote. What are his preferences doing?
id say to lib
Are the Greens still handing out Franklin HTVs? You’d think so, with the Senate HTV and the need for any remaining Greens voters to preference George.
yea they still want the senate votes. plus lets face it the greens candidate wont win or make the count so preferences matter
Given the greens candidate problems and the fact they’ve effectively conceded and won campaign. George will finish atleast 3rd. It will now be whether he can strip enough votes off Collins and the libs to make the count the question is against who? Collins primary is alreadyin the danger zone. Even if she manages to hold on George will likely recontest in 2028.