Executive summary

This paper provides details of House of Representatives by-elections held from that for Darling Downs on 14 September 1901 to the most recent held on 8 February 2014 for Griffith:

• there have been 147 by-elections, an average of 3.3 per parliament
• the number of nominations has grown over the years from 2.2 per by-election to 11.5 per by-election
• in only four cases was a by-election contested by just a single candidate
• an increasing tendency has been for governments to avoid contesting by-elections in their opponents’ safe seats
• in only seven cases have the Opposition party failed to contest a by-election
• sixty-seven of the by-elections followed the death of the member, 74 members resigned, there have been five voided elections, and one MP was expelled from the House
• since 1949 most by-elections have been caused by the resignation of the sitting member and have occurred in safe seats
• on 35 occasions the party complexion of a seat has altered at a by-election
• five of the losses have been by the opposition of the day
• the average two-party preferred swing against the government of the day has been 4.0 per cent
• since 1949 the largest two-party swing against a government occurred in Canberra in 1995. The largest swing to a government occurred in McPherson in 1981.