Division of Fairfax

Fairfax Australian House of Representatives Division
Interactive map of boundaries
Created	1984
MP	Ted O'Brien
Party	Liberal National Party
Namesake	Ruth Fairfax
Electors	123,413 (2022)
Area	1,004 km2 (387.6 sq mi)
Demographic	Rural

The Division of Fairfax is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland.

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.

History

Ruth Fairfax, the division's namesake

The division was created in 1984 and is named after Ruth Fairfax, founder of the Country Women's Association. It is located in the Sunshine Coast region north of Brisbane and includes the towns of Coolum, Yaroomba, Marcoola, Mudjimba, Maroochydore, Buderim, Woombye, Bli Bli, Yandina, Nambour, Mapleton, Kenilworth and Eumundi.

While the Sunshine Coast is traditionally a conservative area, Fairfax is located in a particularly conservative portion of the Sunshine Coast, and so has always been held by a centre-right party. Originally a safe seat for the National Party, demographic change has made it equally safe for the Liberal Party.

The electorate came to national attention at the 2013 federal election, when Clive Palmer, the founder of the Palmer United Party, narrowly won it by 53 votes. Before then, the Coalition's hold on the seat had only been seriously threatened twice, in 1998 and 2007. At all other times, it was a safe, or fairly safe, Coalition seat.

Palmer did not run for re-election, and it was widely expected that the seat would revert to the merged Liberal National Party because, in 2013, LNP would have retained it easily in a "traditional" two-party-preferred vote contest with Labor. As expected, Palmer's 2013 opponent, Ted O'Brien, won the seat resoundingly at the 2016 federal election and has held it without serious difficulty since.

Members

	Image	Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Evan Adermann (1927–2001)	Nationals	1 December 1984 – 19 February 1990	Previously held the Division of Fisher. Retired
		Alex Somlyay (1946–)	Liberal	24 March 1990 – 19 July 2010	Served as Minister under Howard. Retired
			Liberal National	19 July 2010 – 5 August 2013
		Clive Palmer (1954–)	Palmer United	7 September 2013 – 9 May 2016	Retired
		Ted O'Brien (1974–)	Liberal National	2 July 2016 – present	Incumbent

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Fairfax

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2022 Australian federal election in Queensland § Fairfax.[edit]

2022 Australian federal election: Fairfax

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal National	Ted O'Brien	46,551	44.91	−4.71
	Labor	Sue Ferguson	22,662	21.86	+0.38
	Greens	Sue Etheridge	13,862	13.37	+0.78
	One Nation	Nikki Civitarese	6,798	6.56	−1.29
	United Australia	Lisa Khoury	6,132	5.92	+2.86
	Animal Justice	Tash Poole	2,182	2.10	+2.10
	Informed Medical Options	Wendy Hazelton	1,997	1.93	+1.93
	Independent	Barry Smith	1,423	1.37	+1.37
	Great Australian	Craig White	1,319	1.27	+1.27
	Independent	Sinim Australie	733	0.71	−0.64
Total formal votes			103,659	94.47	+0.90
Informal votes			6,066	5.53	−0.90
Turnout			109,725	88.99	−2.45
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal National	Ted O'Brien	61,108	58.95	−4.49
	Labor	Sue Ferguson	42,551	41.05	+4.49
	Liberal National hold		Swing	−4.49

Primary vote results in Fairfax (Parties that did not get 5% of the vote are omitted)

  Liberal/Liberal National

  National

  Labor

  Palmer United/United Australia Party

  Greens

  Australian Democrats

  One Nation

  Independent

Two-candidate-preferred results in Fairfax

External links

• Division of Fairfax (Qld) — Australian Electoral Commission