LNP 10.9%
Incumbent MP
Scott Buchholz, since 2010.
Geography
Wright covers rural parts of South-East Queensland. Wright covers sparsely populated parts of the Gold Coast hinterland, rural parts of the City of Logan, and the entirety of Lockyer Valley and Scenic Rim council areas. Wright covers the towns of Boonah, Beaudesert, Gatton and Laidley, and comes close to the major centres of Logan, Gold Coast, Ipswich and Toowoomba.
History
Wright was created in the 2010 election, out of parts of the seats of Forde and Blair. Both seats were Labor seats in 2007, but Wright was created as a notional Liberal National seat, and neither sitting Labor MP ran in Wright.
In 2010, Wright was created with a 53.8% majority for the LNP. The LNP’s Scott Buchholz won the seat with a 6% swing, and has been re-elected three times.
Assessment
Wright is a safe LNP seat.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Scott Buchholz | Liberal National | 45,753 | 43.2 | -1.7 |
| Pam McCreadie | Labor | 22,643 | 21.4 | +2.6 |
| Keith Hicks | One Nation | 15,095 | 14.2 | +0.2 |
| Nicole Thompson | Greens | 12,107 | 11.4 | +4.3 |
| Cassandra Duffill | United Australia | 8,703 | 8.2 | +3.3 |
| Shonna-Lee Banasiak | Federation Party | 1,632 | 1.5 | +1.5 |
| Informal | 3,733 | 3.4 | -2.7 |
2022 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Scott Buchholz | Liberal National | 64,506 | 60.9 | -3.7 |
| Pam McCreadie | Labor | 41,427 | 39.1 | +3.7 |
Booths have been divided into four areas. Wright covers parts of four local government areas, and polling places have been divided into these four areas.
The LNP won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all four areas, ranging from 54.6% in Logan to 62.6% in Scenic Rim.
The One Nation primary vote ranged from 12.0% on the Gold Coast to 19.4% in the Lockyer Valley.
The Greens came fourth, with a primary vote ranging from 8.9% in Lockyer Valley to 14.9% on the Gold Coast.
| Voter group | GRN prim | ON prim | LNP 2PP | Total votes | % of votes |
| Logan | 12.4 | 15.5 | 54.6 | 13,984 | 13.2 |
| Scenic Rim | 14.4 | 14.2 | 62.6 | 13,613 | 12.9 |
| Lockyer Valley | 8.9 | 19.4 | 61.8 | 11,156 | 10.5 |
| Gold Coast | 14.9 | 12.0 | 59.8 | 7,127 | 6.7 |
| Pre-poll | 9.8 | 13.0 | 62.0 | 33,667 | 31.8 |
| Other votes | 11.7 | 13.7 | 61.8 | 26,386 | 24.9 |
Election results in Wright at the 2022 federal election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal National Party, Labor, One Nation and the Greens.
29.1% of this seat voted for a right-wing minor party, the highest percentage in the nation.
I spent ages making a map for the right-wing minor party vote around the country but now I can’t find the bloody file. Very annoying.
I should be more specific: highest other than Kennedy which is Bob Katter’s seat (counting KAP as a right-wing minor party)
@nether portal
I sometimes wonder what would have happened if there was no Clive Palmer or Rennick one nation vote could be even higher
Fun fact is Pauline Hanson lives around Beaudesert
@Nimalan that was exactly my question which is why I made the map. Will recreate it in a few days or maybe this afternoon.
@Marh in Beaudesert itself One Nation came second in 2022 and 2025.
Six News Project that if an election was held today ONP would win this seat. For ONP to do well it would be good for them to have a single right wing minor party hence no Rennick or Palmer.
I find this dubious.
If we added every vote from Rennick and Palmer in Wright in 2025 and gave them to the One Nation candidate holus bolus, they barely clear Labor on first preference votes. The Greens would push Labor back into second place and the status quo result of LNP would prevail.
In any case, Wright may undergo serious boundary changes at the next redistribution. If the Lockyer Valley is moved out of Wright, there’s no way the ONP can win the seat.
I wonder if this would be amongst Australia’s most right wing nationalist seat if adjusted from demographics and geography given One Nation has a stronghold there (Hanson even lives near Beaudesert)?
@ Marh
A lot of ONP support comes from Semi-rural peri urban areas like Camden, Wollondilly etc. I still think Maranoa is the most conservative seat in the Nation (vote compass constantly has said that). Melbourne is probably the most left-wing followed by Grayndler, Sydney, Wills, Cooper.
@Nimalan I know you’re probably referring to Camden/Wollondilly as examples of Semi-Rural Exurban areas but I think it would apply to the rural/provincial parts of Wright (and to a lesser extent, Blair and Groom) well. The Lockyer Region (where Beaudesert, Laidley and Gatton are located) are very right wing (no surprises given that Hanson almost won the state electorate of Lockyer in 2015) and would be suitable to One Nation’s politics. Ditto for the outer Toowoomba areas like Oakey and the Somerset region towns like Esk, Kilcoy, Lowood and Toogoolawah which are in Blair.
Agree Nimalan – when considering the average vote across the 3 most recent nationwide referenda/plebiscites (Republic 1999, SSM 2017 and Voice 2023), I believe Maranoa recorded the lowest vote with the inner-city ALP-Green seats recording the highest average vote.
This is because the CALD heavy seats (Blaxland, Watson, McMahon etc) recorded average or above average results for the Voice and Republic referenda even though their support for SSM was well below that recorded for the Queensland outback seats (Kennedy and Maranoa).
Continuing from the last post, this probably explains why the MPs of both Wright and Groom are the arch-conservative ones from Hastie/Dutton’s faction rather than the moderate group. Garth Hamilton and Scott Buchholz are both very conservative, which seems to suit their electorates better politically.
@ Tommo9
yes you are correct with my reference. I also think Garth Hamilton should be in the Nats since Groom is such as socially conservative seats.
@ Yoh an
I agree the CALD seats like Blaxland, Watson etc maybe religiously conservative due to CALD people being more religious but they are not Nationalist which is why Blaxland even had a better result for the Voice than Cook despite Blaxland being much poorer and less educated. I dont think a Nationalist culture war on flags WTC, CRT etc works in those seats but does work in Kennedy. For example, Bob Katter will be hated in Blaxland and Watson as some people will say feel he ashamed of his heritage. Labor can appeal to Grayndler and Watson as they just have more in common compared to Grayndler and Kennedy these days.
This from the Guardian 13th May:
“Liberal MPs expect Ley to reward supporters Alex Hawke, Jason Wood and Scott Buchholz with frontbench promotions …”
Buchholz might hold pretty conservative views, but he and the other 2 were on the outer during Dutton’s time. It’s a big division for the south east, Lockyer Valley is a vegetable growing area east of toowoomba, Beaudesert was once a huge dairying area, over 600 farms, voters there tend to be socially conservative. Historically settled by Germans, they tend to be politically active.