Woodridge state by-election, 2000
Encyclopedia
A by-election was held in the Queensland Legislative Assembly
Queensland Legislative Assembly
The Queensland Legislative Assembly is the unicameral chamber of the Parliament of Queensland. Elections are held approximately once every three years. Voting is by the Optional Preferential Voting form of the Alternative Vote system...

 seat of Woodridge
Electoral district of Woodridge
The district of Woodridge is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland.The district is based in the southern suburbs of Brisbane. It is named for the suburb of Woodridge and also takes in the suburbs of Crestmead, Kingston, Logan Central, Marsden and...

on 5 February 2000. It was triggered by the resignation of sitting Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 member Bill D'Arcy
Bill D'Arcy
William Theodore "Bill" D'Arcy is a former Australian politician. He was the Labor member for Albert and Woodridge in the Queensland Legislative Assembly....

. It was held concurrently with the Bundamba state by-election
Bundamba state by-election, 2000
A by-election was held in the Queensland Legislative Assembly seat of Bundamba on 5 February 2000. It was triggered by the resignation of sitting Labor member Bob Gibbs...

.

The seat was retained by Labor Party with the election of candidate Mike Kaiser
Mike Kaiser
Michael Hans "Mike" Kaiser is an Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 2000 to 2001, representing the electorate of Woodridge...

.

Background

Bill D'Arcy
Bill D'Arcy
William Theodore "Bill" D'Arcy is a former Australian politician. He was the Labor member for Albert and Woodridge in the Queensland Legislative Assembly....

 was first elected to state parliament as the Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 member for Albert
Electoral district of Albert
The electoral district of Albert is a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Queensland. Albert is named for the Albert River, which runs through the electorate and separates Logan City from Gold Coast City...

 at the 1972 state election. He lost his seat at the 1974 state election, a landslide defeat for Labor, but returned to parliament as the Labor member for the new seat of Woodridge
Electoral district of Woodridge
The district of Woodridge is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland.The district is based in the southern suburbs of Brisbane. It is named for the suburb of Woodridge and also takes in the suburbs of Crestmead, Kingston, Logan Central, Marsden and...

 at the 1977 state election
Queensland state election, 1977
Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 12 November 1977 to elect the 82 members of the state's Legislative Assembly.The election resulted in a fourth consecutive victory for the National-Liberal Coalition under Joh Bjelke-Petersen...

 and held the seat continuously thereafter.

D'Arcy resigned from parliament on 9 January 2000. It emerged shortly afterwards that D'Arcy was facing charges of child sex offences from his days as a school teacher. D'Arcy was later convicted and spent seven years in jail as a result.

Candidates

To defend the seat, Labor preselected Mike Kaiser
Mike Kaiser
Michael Hans "Mike" Kaiser is an Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 2000 to 2001, representing the electorate of Woodridge...

, then state secretary of the Queensland branch of the Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

. Kaiser's chief opponent was Logan City councillor Russell Lutton, standing as an independent but formerly a member of the Labor Party.

Results

Kaiser won the normally safe seat for the Labor Party, with Lutton polling a strong second.

Aftermath

Labor's retention of Woodridge and Bundamba
Bundamba state by-election, 2000
A by-election was held in the Queensland Legislative Assembly seat of Bundamba on 5 February 2000. It was triggered by the resignation of sitting Labor member Bob Gibbs...

 ensured the government of Peter Beattie
Peter Beattie
Peter Douglas Beattie , Australian politician, was the 36th Premier of the Australian state of Queensland for nine years and leader of the Australian Labor Party in that state for eleven and a half years...

 retained its one seat majority in parliament.

Mike Kaiser
Mike Kaiser
Michael Hans "Mike" Kaiser is an Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 2000 to 2001, representing the electorate of Woodridge...

's stint in parliament would be a short one. He confessed to the Shepherdson Inquiry—set up to investigate electoral fraud—that he signed a false enrolment form in 1986. He consequently resigned from the Labor Party in January 2001 to sit as an independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

 and did not contest the 2001 state election.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK