2009 Bradfield by-election

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.

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.

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.

|-

§ 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 circulated by the campaign director Michael Darby. The platform of the CDP for the by-election was focused on the controversial Emissions Trading Scheme, which was supported by both the Liberal and Labor parties at the time of the by-election. Changes to the CDP platform, as suggested by the controversial survey, had not been sighted or approved by many of its candidates. 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. 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.

References

References

1. [https://archive.today/20120717151322/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/26/2724484.htm Higgins, Bradfield by-elections announced], [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]], 26 October 2009.
2. Antony Green. (2009-08-25). "A By-election in Bradfield: Antony Green's election blog". Blogs.abc.net.au.
3. (2007-06-08). "Candidates for Bradfield (NSW) 2009 by-election (Saturday 5 December)". AEC.
4. (2009-12-03). "Mackerras predicts boilover in Higgins: The Australian 3 December 2009". Theaustralian.com.au.
5. Grattan, Michelle. (2009-12-04). "A day that changed everything: SMH 4 December 2009". Smh.com.au.
6. (2007-06-08). "The AEC has recently restructured our content". Aec.gov.au.
7. (2009-12-05). "Bradfield - 2009 federal by-election - ABC Elections (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". Abc.net.au.
8. "2007 Bradfield candidate - Susie Gemmell :: Ku-ring-gai Greens".
9. (2009-10-28). "Pole dancer aims for Nelson's old seat: SMH 28/10/2009". News.smh.com.au.
10. Priestley, Andrew. (2010-06-15). "Pushing to make safe seat marginal - Local News - News | North Shore Times". North-shore-times.whereilive.com.au.
11. Priestley, Andrew. (2010-06-15). "Bradfield’s Melbourne Cup field - Local News - News | North Shore Times". North-shore-times.whereilive.com.au.
12. Priestley, Andrew. (2010-06-15). "Independent to stand on immigration: North Shore Times 08/09/2009". North-shore-times.whereilive.com.au.
13. (2009-09-26). "Fletcher wins Liberals preselection for Bradfield: ABC News 26/09/2009". Abc.net.au.
14. (2009-12-05). "Antony Green by-election commentary". ABC.
15. [http://vtr.aec.gov.au/Default.htm Virtual Tally Room: AEC] {{webarchive. link. (2009-12-11)
16. Nicholls, Sean. (2010-03-17). "Row of biblical proportions". cdp.org.au.
17. Nile, Fred. (2009-11-20). "Stop the ETS". cdp.org.au.
18. Ja, Crystal. (2009-11-23). "D-day looms for Turnbull". Smh.com.au.
19. Nile, Fred. (2009-12-14). "Nile Apology". cdp.org.au.
20. Nicholls, Sean. (2009-12-29). "Nile party in an unholy row after byelection". Smh.com.au.
21. (2010-02-17). "Nile scapegoat calls in lawyers". Smh.com.au.