Division of Herbert

The Division of Herbert is an Australian electoral division in the state of Queensland. Eligible voters within the Division elect a single representative, known as the member for Herbert, to the Australian House of Representatives. It covers the city of Townsville. The current MP is Phillip Thompson of the Liberal Party.

Geography

Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australian Electoral Commission. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

History

File:Queensland State Archives 2954 Portrait of The Honourable Sir Robert George Wyndham Herbert Premier of Queensland c 1862.png

Sir Robert Herbert, the division's namesake

The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 65 divisions at the first federal election. It is located in northern Queensland, and is named after Sir Robert Herbert, the first Premier of Queensland (1859–1866). It has always been based around the city of Townsville.

On its original boundaries, it covered most of north-eastern Queensland, stretching from Mackay to the Torres Strait. Much of its northern portion, including Cairns and the Cape York Peninsula, transferred to Kennedy in 1934 (these areas are now part of Leichhardt. Its south-eastern portion, including Mackay, became Dawson in 1949. By 1984, successive redistributions cut back the seat to little more than Townsville and its inner suburbs.

The seat had long been one of Australia's noteworthy bellwether seats. It was won by the party of government for all but two terms from the 1966 election until the 2007 election, where it was hotly contested with local identity and businessman George Colbran pre-selected by Labor to contest Herbert, however Liberal incumbent Peter Lindsay managed to retain the seat with a wafer-thin 50.2 percent two-party vote from a 6 percent two-party swing while his party lost government. Ewen Jones of the merged Liberal National Party succeeded Lindsay and retained the seat at the following two elections with increased margins.

Herbert featured the closest result of any division at the 2016 federal election. Following a recount, the Australian Electoral Commission confirmed on 31 July that Labor's Cathy O'Toole defeated the LNP incumbent by 37 votes, becoming the first Labor member to win the seat since 1996.<ref>Labor takes seat of Herbert, leaving Malcolm Turnbull with majority of just one seat: SMH 31 July 2016</ref><ref name=HerbertABC>Labor wins seat of Herbert after recount: ABC 31 July 2016</ref> The LNP considered a legal challenge to the result.<ref name=HerbertABC/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The LNP regained the seat with a big swing to them in 2019, part of a large swing to the LNP in Queensland, and in 2022 the seat again swung to the Coalition, bucking the national and statewide swing to Labor.

Members

	Image	Member	Party	Term	Notes
Template:Australian party style|	File:Fred Bamford (cropped).jpg	Fred Bamford Template:Small	Labor	30 March 1901 – 14 November 1916	Served as minister under Hughes. Retired
Template:Australian party style|			National Labor	14 November 1916 – 17 February 1917
Template:Australian party style|			Nationalist	17 February 1917 – 3 October 1925
Template:Australian party style|	File:Lewis Nott 1920s.png	Lewis Nott Template:Small		14 November 1925 – 17 November 1928	Lost seat. Later elected to the Division of Australian Capital Territory in 1949
Template:Australian party style|	File:George Martens.jpg	George Martens Template:Small	Labor	17 November 1928 – 16 August 1946	Retired
Template:Australian party style|	File:Bill Edmonds.png	Bill Edmonds Template:Small		28 September 1946 – 22 November 1958	Lost seat
Template:Australian party style|	File:John Murray.png	John Murray Template:Small	Liberal	22 November 1958 – 9 December 1961	Lost seat. Later elected to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland seat of Clayfield in 1963
Template:Australian party style|	File:TedHarding1962.jpg	Ted Harding Template:Small	Labor	9 December 1961 – 26 November 1966	Lost seat
Template:Australian party style|	File:RobertBonnett1968.jpg	Duke Bonnett Template:Small	Liberal	26 November 1966 – 10 November 1977	Retired
Template:Australian party style|	File:Liberal Placeholder.png	Gordon Dean Template:Small		10 December 1977 – 5 March 1983	Lost seat
Template:Australian party style|	File:TedLindsay (cropped).jpg	Ted Lindsay Template:Small	Labor	5 March 1983 – 2 March 1996	Lost seat
Template:Australian party style|	File:Liberal Placeholder.png	Peter Lindsay Template:Small	Liberal	2 March 1996 – 19 July 2010	Retired
Template:Australian party style|	File:Ewen Jones.jpg	Ewen Jones Template:Small	LiberalTemplate:Efn	21 August 2010 – 2 July 2016	Lost seat
Template:Australian party style|	File:Cathy O'Toole 2017.jpg	Cathy O'Toole Template:Small	Labor	2 July 2016 – 18 May 2019	Lost seat
Template:Australian party style|	File:Phillip Thompson (cropped).jpg	Phillip Thompson Template:Small	LiberalTemplate:Efn	18 May 2019 – present	Incumbent

Election results

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External links

• Division of Herbert (Qld) — Australian Electoral Commission