Brisbane in focus: The state of play across the city's key electorates

Sydney Morning Herald

03-05-2025

After five weeks of campaigning, polls closed at 6pm. Labor, the Coalition and the Greens are all hoping they can hold on to key electorates in the Greater Brisbane area, and even pick up others.
Here is the state of play in some of the most tightly contested seats.
Brisbane
The seat of Brisbane takes in inner-city suburbs including riverside New Farm and Newstead, the well-heeled Clayfield and Hamilton, as well as Albion, Lutwyche, Bowen Hills, Kelvin Grove, Newmarket, Enoggera, Windsor, Wilston and Wooloowin, plus the CBD and parts of Stafford and Bardon.
Incumbent Green Stephen Bates took the seat from the LNP's Trevor Evans in the progressive party's historic Brisbane sweep three years ago, shocking political pundits across the country and prompting leader Adam Bandt to declare a 'Greenslide'.
Bates holds the electorate with a 3.7 per cent margin, but finished in third place at the last election before preferences were counted.
A well-resourced campaign from Labor's Madonna Jarrett – who also ran at the last election – set up the race as a genuine three-way rematch, and one that could be key to either major party forming government.
Griffith
Griffith was held by Labor for almost a quarter of a century – with former PM Kevin Rudd serving 15 years – before Max Chandler-Mather won the seat from Terri Butler in 2022.
The renter- and apartment-dominated suburbs of West End, Kangaroo Point, South Brisbane and Woolloongabba fall within the boundaries, as does a mortgage-heavy belt spanning Bulimba, Norman Park, Carina, Camp Hill, Holland Park and Coorparoo.
Chandler-Mather has been a firebrand for the Greens since winning the seat, and is one of its best known figures as spokesperson for housing.
His Labor challenger, Renee Coffey, lives in Norman Park and most recently served as chief executive of a national youth mental health charity.
Ryan
Established as an electorate in 1949, Ryan was a blue seat – that is, held by the conservative Liberal Party or its Queensland successor, the LNP – for all but 11 months in 2001, until Elizabeth Watson-Brown won in 2022.
The electorate covers two dozen suburbs, from urban riverside areas near the University of Queensland campus to more affluent suburbs where at least 80 per cent of residents are home owners.
Former architect Watson-Brown's first preference count lagged 8.3 per cent behind then-incumbent LNP member Julian Simmonds, and her final lead was a slim 2.6 per cent.
Her main challenger is Brisbane barrister Maggie Forrest, running for the LNP, while former school principal Rebecca Hack is running for Labor.
'The electorate of Ryan is actually ripe for a teal candidate, but in the absence of [one], the Greens have basically picked up the mantle,' University of Queensland political economist and Ryan local Shahar Hameiri told this masthead during the campaign.
Dickson
Rumours he's losing his home base have dogged Peter Dutton, the federal opposition leader, since the election was announced in late March – and have not been helped by the fact the 2022 two-candidate-preferred margin in Dickson was 1.7 per cent.
Starting a half-hour drive north of Brisbane's CBD, Dickson is home to about 118,468 enrolled voters across suburbs of the City of Moreton Bay, including Albany Creek, Everton Hills, Ferny Hills, Kurwongbah, Murrumba Downs, Petrie, Strathpine and parts of Kallangur.
Labor's Ali France has been creeping up on Dutton since 2019, when she contested the seat with a maiden campaign. The seat is also being contested by a handful of independent and minor party candidates, including Climate 200-backed independent Ellie Smith, whose preferences may make a difference.
Moreton
Moreton is considered a safe Labor seat, having been held by Labor MP Graham Perrett since 2007.
It includes inner-city suburbs like Yeronga, Fairfield and Annerley and stretches south-west to Corinda and Oxley and south to Sunnybank and Kuraby, with the South-East Freeway as its eastern border.
With Perrett retiring, Labor is running its former state secretary Julie-Ann Campbell, and it is the next Brisbane seat in the Greens' sights.
The Greens candidate, Remah Naji, is a 35-year-old social worker and an organiser of the Justice for Palestine protest group.