Oxley is a Labor seat in south-western Brisbane. The seat previously covered Ipswich and other parts of the fringe of South-East Queensland, and was held by Bill Hayden throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Hayden held the seat while serving as Treasurer, Leader of the Opposition and Foreign Minister before becoming Governor-General in 1988.
The most famous election result in Oxley took place in 1996, when Liberal candidate Pauline Hanson was disendorsed after she made comments critical of government support for Aborigines. Hanson won election as an independent (but with the Liberal Party’s endorsement on the ballot paper) and went on to found One Nation, although she failed to win re-election after parts of Oxley were moved into the new seat of Blair in 1998. Apart from that single result in 1996, Oxley has long been a solid Labor seat.
