1998 Queensland state election

1998 Queensland state election
← 1995 13 June 1998 (1998-06-13) 2001 →
All 89 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland
45 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
Registered2,115,977 Increase5.41%
Turnout1,964,778 (92.85%)
(Increase1.42 pp)
  First party Second party Third party
 
N/LC
ON
Leader Peter Beattie Rob Borbidge Heather Hill
Party Labor National–Liberal Coalition One Nation
Leader since 20 February 1996 (1996-02-20) 10 December 1991 21 May 1998
Leader's seat Brisbane Central Surfers Paradise Contested Ipswich
Last election 45 seats, 42.89% 43 seats, 48.99% New party
Seats before 44 seats 44 seats Did not exist
Seats won 44 seats 32 seats 11 seats
Seat change Steady Decrease 12 Increase 11
Popular vote 773,585 605,353 439,121
Percentage 38.86% 31.26% 22.68%
Swing Decrease 4.03 Decrease 17.73 Increase 22.68
The top map shows the first party preference by electorate. The bottom map shows the final two-party preferred vote result by electorate.
Premier before election

Rob Borbidge
National/Liberal coalition

Resulting Premier

Peter Beattie
Labor

Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 13 June 1998 to elect the 89 members of the state's Legislative Assembly.

The result of the election was a second consecutive hung parliament, with the Labor Party forming minority government after receiving the support of independent Peter Wellington. This election was the first in which One Nation supporters were elected to state Parliament, with the controversial party winning 11 seats. With nearly 23% of the vote, One Nation gained a higher percentage of the vote than any other third party (i.e. not Labor, Coalition, or independents) at the state or territory level since Federation. This was also the only election at which a third party gained more votes than both the Liberal Party and the National Party considered separately. Unlike in previous elections, no attempt was made to calculate the statewide two-party preferred vote (2PP), because the One Nation vote was so high that any 2PP result would have been meaningless.

A few months after the election, the One Nation member for Mulgrave, Charles Rappolt resigned. Labor won the ensuing by-election, allowing it to form government with a bare majority of 45 seats.