2008 Townsville City Council election

The 2008 Townsville City Council election was held on 15 March 2008 to elect a mayor and 12 councillors to the City of Townsville. The election was held as part of the statewide local elections in Queensland, Australia.^[1]

2008 Townsville City Council election

← 2004 15 March 2008 (2008-03-15) 2012 →

Mayor

First party Second party   Candidate Les Tyrell Tony Mooney Party Team Tyrell Labor Popular vote 47,956 31,524 Percentage 54.64% 35.91% Swing 54.64 37.65

Mayor before election Tony Mooney Labor Subsequent Mayor Les Tyrell Team Tyrell

Councillors

All 13 members on the City Council (including the Mayor) 7 seats needed for a majority

Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– Team Tyrell Les Tyrell 11 +11 Labor Tony Mooney 1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

The election saw the Australian Labor Party, which had controlled the council for 32 years − the longest-serving Labor administration in Australia − defeated in a landslide by the conservative Team Tyrell, which won all but one of the councillor positions. Incumbent mayor Tony Mooney was among the ALP members defeated.^[2]

As of 2024, this was the last time the ALP contested a Townsville City Council election.^[3]

Background

Townsville City Council had been controlled by Labor since 1976. Tony Mooney had served as mayor since 1989, when he succeeded Mike Reynolds. At the previous election in 2004, Mooney won 73.56% of the primary vote and 80% of the two-candidate-preferred vote.^[4]

In 2007, the Queensland state government engaged in a programme of local government reform, focused on amalgamating local government areas (LGAs) across Queensland. It was recommended that the City of Thuringowa merge with the City of Townsville to form a new, larger council.^[5] Although there was some controversy, the merger ultimately took place, with the City of Thuringowa ceasing to exist on 15 March 2008 (the date of the local elections).^[6]

Candidates

Les Tyrell, Thuringowa's mayor of 17 years, chose to contest the Townsville mayoral election, leading the Team Tyrell ticket. Incumbent Independent Liberal councillor David Crisafulli ran on the ticket in partnership with Tyrell as a deputy mayoral candidate.^[7][8]

The Greens led a ticket called "Community Voices", although only three out of eight candidates (including mayoral candidate Jenny Stirling) were Greens members.^[9][10]

Results

Mayor

This section is an excerpt from 2008 Queensland mayoral elections § Townsville.[edit]

2008 Queensland mayoral elections: Townsville^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Team Tyrell	Les Tyrell	47,956	54.64	+54.64
	Labor	Tony Mooney	31,524	35.91	−37.65
	Community Voices	Jenny Stirling	6,343	7.23
	Independent	Rolando Taviani	1,292	1.47
	Independent	Francis Pauler	660	0.75
Total formal votes			87,775	98.71
Informal votes			1,145	1.29
Turnout			88,920
	Team Tyrell gain from Labor		Swing

Councillors

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2008 Queensland local elections § Townsville.[edit]

2008 Queensland local elections: Townsville^[12][13]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Team Tyrell	David Crisafulli (elected)	47,040	4.87
	Team Tyrell	Jenny Lane (elected)	42,716	4.42
	Team Tyrell	Dale Last (elected)	38,865	4.02
	Team Tyrell	Rob McCahill (elected)	38,490	3.98
	Team Tyrell	Ray Gartrell (elected)	37,449	3.88
	Team Tyrell	Deanne Bell (elected)	37,474	3.88
	Team Tyrell	Sue Blom (elected)	37,362	3.87
	Team Tyrell	Brian Hewett (elected)	35,781	3.70
	Team Tyrell	Vern Veitch (elected)	35,152	3.64
	Labor	Jenny Hill (elected)	34,544	3.58
	Team Tyrell	Tony Parsons (elected)	33,951	3.51
	Team Tyrell	Natalie Marr (elected)	33,538	3.47
	Team Tyrell	Brenda-Anne Parfitt	30,466	3.15
	Labor	Terry Goldsworthy	27,494	2.85
	Labor	Jack Wilson	27,148	2.81
	Labor	Les Walker	26,423	2.74
	Labor	David Mather	26,142	2.71
	Labor	Peter Whalley-Thompson	25,625	2.65
	Labor	Mandy Johnstone	25,449	2.63
	Labor	John Robertson	25,409	2.63
		Sandra Chesney	23,761	2.46
		Joanne Keune	20,041	2.07
		Jeff Jimmieson	19,188	1.99
		David Moyle	19,093	1.98
		Ken Turner	18,248	1.89
	Community Voices	Lindy Collins	17,095	1.77
		Doug Kingston	16,820	1.74
	Community Voices	Gail Hamilton	14,336	1.48
	Community Voices	Sam Reuben	13,012	1.35
		Mark McGregor	11,521	1.19
		Jim Gleeson	11,142	1.15
		Sue Rush	10,336	1.07
		Adrienne Isnard	9,774	1.01
		Dianne Rogers	9,126	0.94
		Brian Bensley	7,498	0.78
		Paul Lynham	7,096	0.73
		Peter Hanley	7,040	0.73
		Kenneth Stark	6,743	0.70
		Gaye Newey	6,682	0.69
		David Kault	6,587	0.68
		Leeanne Hanna-McGuffie	6,071	0.63
		Dave Robinson	5,981	0.62
		Norm Petrie	5,726	0.59
		Michael Collins	5,364	0.56
		John Waszkiewicz	5,328	0.55
		Peter Newey	5,038	0.52
		Russell Bowe	4,335	0.45
		Kevin Cameron	3,432	0.36
		Harrison H. Duncan	3,164	0.33
Total formal votes			966,096	100.0
Total formal ballots			88,920	99.14
Informal ballots			8,412	0.86
Turnout			974,508	84.68
Party total seats				Seats	±
	Team Tyrell			11	11
	Labor			1
	Independent			0
	Community Voices			0