Hinchinbrook by-election, 2025

Cause of by-election
Sitting Katter’s Australian Party Nick Dametto has announced his intention to resign from parliament to contest the by-election for the mayor of the City of Townsville, to be held in November. It is not clear if the Hinchinbrook state by-election will be held in 2025 or 2026.

Margin – KAP 13.2% vs LNP

Incumbent MP
Nick Dametto, since 2017.

• Geography
• History
• Candidates
• Assessment
• 2023 results
• Booth breakdown
• Results maps

Geography
North Queensland. Covers the Queensland coastline north of Townsville. The seat covers southern parts of Cassoway Coast council area, all of Hinchinbrook, and northern parts of Townsville LGA. The seat covers Ingham, Cardwell, Alice River, and some of the northern beaches of Townsville.

History
The seat of Hinchinbrook was first created in 1950, and had been held by the Country/National/Liberal National Party from 1960 until 2017.

Marc Rowell won the seat for the National Party in 1989. He briefly served as a minister in the final months of the Borbidge coalition government in 1998.

Rowell retired in 2006, and was succeeded by Andrew Cripps. Cripps was re-elected in 2009, 2012 and 2015.

Cripps was defeated in 2017 by Katter’s Australian Party’s Nick Dametto, who came third with less than 21% of the primary vote, but won thanks to Labor and One Nation preferences. Dametto won re-election in 2020 with a doubling of his primary vote, and won a third term in 2024.

Candidates
No information.

Assessment
Dametto holds Hinchinbrook by a substantial margin. This by-election will be an interesting test of how much of this margin is his personal vote, as opposed to general support for KAP. KAP would be favourites to win, but there isn’t much precedent for this kind of election.

2024 result

2024 two-party-preferred result

Booth breakdown

Booths in Hinchinbrook have been divided into three areas: central, north and south. Each area aligns with one of the three local government areas in the seat. A majority of ordinary votes were cast in the south.

Katter’s Australian Party won a majority of the two-candidate-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 61.3% in the north to 72.1% in the centre.

Labor came third, with a primary vote ranging from 8.6% in the centre to 15.7% in the south.

Election results in Hinchinbrook at the 2024 Queenslnad state election
Toggle between two-candidate-preferred votes (Katter’s Australian Party vs Liberal National Party) and primary votes for Katter’s Australian Party, the Liberal National Party and Labor.

Become a Patron!