2009 Bradfield by-election

The 2009 Bradfield by-election was held for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Bradfield on 5 December 2009.[1] This was triggered as a result of the resignation of former minister and ex-Liberal Party leader Brendan Nelson.[2] The by-election was held on the same day as the Higgins by-election.

2009 Bradfield by-election

5 December 2009

Candidate Paul Fletcher Susie Gemmell Party Liberal Greens Popular vote 39,815 17,799 Percentage 56.44% 25.23%

Location of Bradfield within metropolitan Sydney

MP before election Brendan Nelson Liberal Elected MP Paul Fletcher Liberal

The by-election was contested on the same boundaries drawn for Bradfield at the 2007 federal election. At that election, the Liberal Party won the seat over the Labor Party with a 63.45 per cent of the vote on a two-party-preferred basis, making it the safest metropolitan seat in Australia for the Liberals. The 2007 result was the second-closest in the seat's 60-year history (after the 1952 Bradfield by-election against an independent). The Liberal candidate has never had to go to preferences to win the seat.[3]

The writ for the by-election was issued on 30 October, with the rolls closing on 9 November. Candidate nominations closed on 12 November, and were announced the following day. At 22 candidates, it ties with the 1992 Wills by-election for the most candidates to contest a federal lower house seat.[4]

Both the Bradfield and Higgins by-elections were the last by-elections for the House of Representatives until the Griffith by-election held in February 2014.

Background

At the 2007 federal election, the opposition Kevin Rudd-led Labor Party defeated the incumbent John Howard-led Liberal-National coalition government. This marked the first change of government in over 11 years. Brendan Nelson had served in ministerial positions in the Howard government, before taking over the Liberal leadership from Howard after the election loss. He lost the leadership to Malcolm Turnbull less than a year later after sustained poor polling.

Nelson first won the seat of Bradfield at the 1996 election.

Nelson had initially indicated (16 February 2009) he would stay as the member until the next election, at which time he would retire from parliament. On 25 August 2009, however, he announced he would be resigning by late September, thus triggering a by-election. On 16 September 2009, he was appointed as Ambassador to the European Union, NATO, Belgium and Luxembourg. He officially resigned from the House on 19 October 2009.

Campaign

The Higgins and Bradfield by-election campaigns were overshadowed by Liberal infighting over Labor's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, culminating in the replacement of Malcolm Turnbull with Tony Abbott as Liberal leader. Although fairly safe on paper, some commentators including Malcolm Mackerras tipped the Greens to win in Higgins, and force the Liberals to preferences in Bradfield.[5][6]

Candidates

The following table is the order and party affiliation of each candidate who has nominated to contest the seat of Bradfield on 5 December 2009.[7]

Ballot Number		Party	Candidate	Profession	Notes
1		Christian Democrats	James Whitehall	Property development
2		Christian Democrats	Jodi Luke	Teacher
3		Independent	Peter Hanrahan	Pensioner
4		Independent	Bill Koutalianos	Architecture graduate	Endorsed by the unregistered Climate Sceptics Party
5		Democratic Labor	Simon McCaffrey	Obstetrician and gynaecologist	[8]
6		Christian Democrats	Robyn Peebles	Religious minister
7		Greens	Susie Gemmell	Parliamentary Advisor	Greens candidate for Bradfield at the 2007 federal election.[9]
8		Christian Democrats	Darryl Allen	Retiree
9		Christian Democrats	Leighton Thew	Engineer
10		Sex	Marianne Leishman	Entertainer and law graduate	[10]
11		Independent	Philip Dowling	Education officer
12		Independent	Simon Kelly	IT businessman	[11]
13		One Nation	Victor Waterson	Fitter and Turner	[12]
14		Liberal Democrats	Lucy Gabb	Search marketer
15		Independent	Brian Buckley		"Australian nationalist", a republican, anti-immigration and pro-refugee.[13]
16		Liberal	Paul Fletcher	Former Optus executive	[14]
17		Christian Democrats	Andrew Hestelow	Company director
18		Christian Democrats	Esther Heng	Secretary
19		Christian Democrats	Joseph Pender	Student
20		Christian Democrats	David Pix	Graphics teacher
21		Climate Change Coalition	Deborah Burt	Consultant
22		Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy	Goronwy Price	Director

The Australian Labor Party did not stand a candidate. The Christian Democrats suggested that they were considering running up to eleven candidates (eleven being the number of faithful disciples). The CDP ended up fielding nine candidates.

Results

The Liberal Party retained the seat.[15]

Bradfield by-election, 2009[16]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Paul Fletcher	39,815	56.44	−2.63
	Greens	Susie Gemmell	17,799	25.23	+13.97
	Sex Party	Marianne Leishman	2,229	3.16	+3.16
	Democratic Labour	Simon McCaffrey	1,533	2.17	+2.17
	Independent	Simon Kelly	1,359	1.93	+1.93
	Independent	Bill Koutalianos	1,191	1.69	+1.69
	Christian Democrats	James Whitehall	1,054	1.49	§
	Nuclear Energy	Goronwy Price	758	1.07	+1.07
	Climate Change	Deborah Burt	686	0.97	+0.97
	Independent	Brian Buckley	618	0.88	+0.88
	Liberal Democrats	Lucy Gabb	589	0.83	+0.83
	Independent	Philip Dowling	555	0.79	+0.79
	One Nation	Victor Waterson	449	0.64	+0.64
	Independent	Peter Hanrahan	443	0.63	+0.63
	Christian Democrats	Esther Heng	362	0.51	§
	Christian Democrats	Andrew Hestelow	285	0.40	§
	Christian Democrats	Leighton Thew	187	0.27	§
	Christian Democrats	Jodi Luke	170	0.24	§
	Christian Democrats	Robyn Peebles	162	0.23	§
	Christian Democrats	Darryl Allen	147	0.21	§
	Christian Democrats	David Pix	100	0.14	§
	Christian Democrats	Joseph Pender	57	0.08	§
Total formal votes			70,548	91.00	−5.01
Informal votes			6,976	9.00	+5.01
Turnout			77,524	81.51	−12.52
Two-candidate-preferred result
	Liberal	Paul Fletcher	45,725	64.81	+1.36
	Greens	Susie Gemmell	24,823	35.19	+35.19
	Liberal hold		Swing	N/A

§ The combined Christian Democrats vote was 3.58 percent, an increase of 1.84 percentage points.

Aftermath

The Christian Democratic Party's lead candidate, James Whitehall, resigned from the party soon after the by-election on strong disagreement with the content of a controversial and unauthorised survey[17] circulated by the campaign director Michael Darby. The platform of the CDP for the by-election was focused on the controversial Emissions Trading Scheme,[18] which was supported by both the Liberal and Labor parties at the time of the by-election.[19] Changes to the CDP platform, as suggested by the controversial survey, had not been sighted or approved by many of its candidates.[20] Whitehall's father, the party's junior deputy president, also resigned. Being the author of the survey, which included questions on whether the Government should be able to deport muslims, and whether mosques and Islamic schools should be banned, Darby faced expulsion from the party.[21] He was ultimately relieved of his position, and party leader, Fred Nile, offered an apology for the survey, also stating that the CDP would not run multiple candidates in any electorates in future.[22]

See also

• List of Australian federal by-elections
• 1952 Bradfield by-election

References

1. Higgins, Bradfield by-elections announced, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 26 October 2009.
2. "My race is run, says retiring Nelson". ABC. 25 August 2009.
3. Antony Green (2009-08-25). "A By-election in Bradfield: Antony Green's election blog". Blogs.abc.net.au. Retrieved 2010-06-25.
4. "Candidates for Bradfield (NSW) 2009 by-election (Saturday 5 December)". AEC. 2007-06-08. Retrieved 2010-06-25.
5. "Mackerras predicts boilover in Higgins: The Australian 3 December 2009". Theaustralian.com.au. 2009-12-03. Retrieved 2010-06-25.
6. Grattan, Michelle (2009-12-04). "A day that changed everything: SMH 4 December 2009". Smh.com.au. Retrieved 2010-06-25.
7. "The AEC has recently restructured our content". Aec.gov.au. 2007-06-08. Retrieved 2010-06-25.
8. "Bradfield - 2009 federal by-election - ABC Elections (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". Abc.net.au. 2009-12-05. Retrieved 2010-06-25.
9. "2007 Bradfield candidate - Susie Gemmell :: Ku-ring-gai Greens". Archived from the original on 2009-10-27. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
10. "Pole dancer aims for Nelson's old seat: SMH 28/10/2009". News.smh.com.au. 2009-10-28. Retrieved 2010-06-25.
11. Priestley, Andrew (2010-06-15). "Pushing to make safe seat marginal - Local News - News | North Shore Times". North-shore-times.whereilive.com.au. Retrieved 2010-06-25.
12. Priestley, Andrew (2010-06-15). "Bradfield's Melbourne Cup field - Local News - News | North Shore Times". North-shore-times.whereilive.com.au. Retrieved 2010-06-25.
13. Priestley, Andrew (2010-06-15). "Independent to stand on immigration: North Shore Times 08/09/2009". North-shore-times.whereilive.com.au. Retrieved 2010-06-25.
14. "Fletcher wins Liberals preselection for Bradfield: ABC News 26/09/2009". Abc.net.au. 2009-09-26. Retrieved 2010-06-25.
15. "Antony Green by-election commentary". ABC. 2009-12-05. Retrieved 2010-06-25.
16. Virtual Tally Room: AEC Archived 2009-12-11 at the Wayback Machine
17. Nicholls, Sean (2010-03-17). "Row of biblical proportions". cdp.org.au. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
18. Nile, Fred (2009-11-20). "Stop the ETS". cdp.org.au. Archived from the original on 2013-11-14. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
19. Ja, Crystal (2009-11-23). "D-day looms for Turnbull". Smh.com.au. Retrieved 2009-11-23.
20. Nile, Fred (2009-12-14). "Nile Apology". cdp.org.au. Archived from the original on 2013-11-14. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
21. Nicholls, Sean (2009-12-29). "Nile party in an unholy row after byelection". Smh.com.au. Retrieved 2010-06-25.
22. Nicholls, Sean; McKenny, Leesha (2010-02-17). "Nile scapegoat calls in lawyers". Smh.com.au. Retrieved 2010-06-25.

External links

• Bradfield by-election: Antony Green ABC
• Bradfield by-election: The Poll Bludger