Division of Fairfax

Fairfax Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Fairfax in Queensland, as of the 2019 federal election.
Created	1984
MP	Ted O'Brien
Party	Liberal National Party
Namesake	Ruth Fairfax
Electors	114,127 (2019)
Area	1,004 km2 (387.6 sq mi)
Demographic	Rural

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

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.^[1]

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.^{[citation needed]} Originally a safe seat for the National Party, demographic change has made it equally safe for the Liberal Party.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

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	Retired
			Liberal Nationals	19 July 2010 – 5 August 2013
		Clive Palmer (1954–)	Palmer United	7 September 2013 – 9 May 2016	Retired
		Ted O'Brien (1974–)	Liberal Nationals	2 July 2016 – present	Incumbent

Election results[]

  National

References[]

External links[]

• Division of Fairfax (Qld) — Australian Electoral Commission

Coordinates: 26°35′10″S 152°53′17″E / 26.586°S 152.888°E / -26.586; 152.888