Division of Herbert

The Division of Herbert is an Australian electoral division in the state of Queensland. Eligible voters within the Division elect a single representative, known as the member for Herbert, to the Australian House of Representatives. It covers the city of Townsville. The current MP is Phillip Thompson of the Liberal Party.

Herbert Australian House of Representatives Division
Interactive map of boundaries since the 2019 federal election
Created	1901
MP	Phillip Thompson
Party	Liberal[a]
Namesake	Sir Robert Herbert
Electors	121,315 (2025)
Area	946 km2 (365.3 sq mi)
Demographic	Provincial
Electorates around Herbert: Kennedy Pacific Ocean Pacific Ocean Kennedy Herbert Pacific Ocean Kennedy Kennedy Dawson

Geography

Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australian Electoral Commission. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.^[1]

History

Sir Robert Herbert, the division's namesake

The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 65 divisions at the first federal election. It is located in northern Queensland, and is named after Sir Robert Herbert, the first Premier of Queensland (1859–1866). It has always been based around the city of Townsville.

On its original boundaries, it covered most of north-eastern Queensland, stretching from Mackay to the Torres Strait. Much of its northern portion, including Cairns and the Cape York Peninsula, transferred to Kennedy in 1934 (these areas are now part of Leichhardt. Its south-eastern portion, including Mackay, became Dawson in 1949. By 1984, successive redistributions cut back the seat to little more than Townsville and its inner suburbs.

The seat had long been one of Australia's noteworthy bellwether seats. It was won by the party of government for all but two terms from the 1966 election until the 2007 election, where it was hotly contested with local identity and businessman George Colbran pre-selected by Labor to contest Herbert, however Liberal incumbent Peter Lindsay managed to retain the seat with a wafer-thin 50.2 percent two-party vote from a 6 percent two-party swing while his party lost government. Ewen Jones of the merged Liberal National Party succeeded Lindsay and retained the seat at the following two elections with increased margins.

Herbert featured the closest result of any division at the 2016 federal election. Following a recount, the Australian Electoral Commission confirmed on 31 July that Labor's Cathy O'Toole defeated the LNP incumbent by 37 votes, becoming the first Labor member to win the seat since 1996.^[2][3] The LNP considered a legal challenge to the result.^[3][4] The LNP regained the seat with a big swing to them in 2019, part of a large swing to the LNP in Queensland, and in 2022 the seat again swung to the Coalition, bucking the national and statewide swing to Labor.

Members

	Image	Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Fred Bamford (1849–1934)	Labor	30 March 1901 – 14 November 1916	Served as minister under Hughes. Retired
			National Labor	14 November 1916 – 17 February 1917
			Nationalist	17 February 1917 – 3 October 1925
		Lewis Nott (1886–1951)		14 November 1925 – 17 November 1928	Lost seat. Later elected to the Division of Australian Capital Territory in 1949
		George Martens (1874–1949)	Labor	17 November 1928 – 16 August 1946	Retired
		Bill Edmonds (1903–1968)		28 September 1946 – 22 November 1958	Lost seat
		John Murray (1915–2009)	Liberal	22 November 1958 – 9 December 1961	Lost seat. Later elected to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland seat of Clayfield in 1963
		Ted Harding (1921–2004)	Labor	9 December 1961 – 26 November 1966	Lost seat
		Duke Bonnett (1916–1994)	Liberal	26 November 1966 – 10 November 1977	Retired
		Gordon Dean (1943–2023)		10 December 1977 – 5 March 1983	Lost seat
		Ted Lindsay (1942–)	Labor	5 March 1983 – 2 March 1996	Lost seat
		Peter Lindsay (1944–)	Liberal	2 March 1996 – 19 July 2010	Retired
		Ewen Jones (1960–2023)	Liberal[a]	21 August 2010 – 2 July 2016	Lost seat
		Cathy O'Toole (1956–)	Labor	2 July 2016 – 18 May 2019	Lost seat
		Phillip Thompson (1988–)	Liberal[a]	18 May 2019 – present	Incumbent

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Herbert

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2025 Australian federal election in Queensland § Herbert.[edit]

2025 Australian federal election: Herbert^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal National	Phillip Thompson	47,941	48.74	+1.73
	Labor	Edwina Andrew	22,646	23.02	+1.42
	Greens	Chris Evans	9,228	9.38	+1.16
	Katter's Australian	Darryn Casson	6,559	6.67	−0.33
	One Nation	Ross Macdonald	5,100	5.18	−0.09
	People First	Felicity Cole	3,255	3.31	+3.31
	Trumpet of Patriots	Martin Brewster	2,173	2.21	+2.21
	Family First	Felicity Roser	1,460	1.48	+1.48
Total formal votes			98,362	94.89	+0.66
Informal votes			5,300	5.11	−0.66
Turnout			103,662	85.47	−0.46
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal National	Phillip Thompson	62,374	63.41	+1.64
	Labor	Edwina Andrew	35,988	36.59	−1.64
	Liberal National hold		Swing	+1.64

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2022 Australian federal election in Queensland § Herbert.[edit]

2022 Australian federal election: Herbert^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal National	Phillip Thompson	43,453	47.01	+9.90
	Labor	John Ring	19,971	21.60	−3.85
	Greens	Scott Humphreys	7,596	8.22	+0.91
	Katter's Australian	Clynton Hawks	6,472	7.00	−2.80
	One Nation	Diane Pepe	4,874	5.27	−5.82
	Independent	Angela Egan	2,983	3.23	+3.23
	United Australia	Greg Dowling	2,383	2.58	−3.12
	Informed Medical Options	Toni McMahon	1,658	1.79	+1.79
	Animal Justice	Toni McCormack	1,359	1.47	−0.25
	Independent	Steven Clare	942	1.02	+1.02
	Great Australian	Larna Ballard	749	0.81	+0.81
Total formal votes			92,440	94.23	+0.13
Informal votes			5,658	5.77	−0.13
Turnout			98,098	85.93	−4.13
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal National	Phillip Thompson	57,103	61.77	+3.41
	Labor	John Ring	35,337	38.23	−3.41
	Liberal National hold		Swing	+3.41

Alluvial diagram for preference flows in the seat of Herbert in the 2022 federal election. Y indicates at what stage the winning candidate had over 50% of the votes and was declared the winner.

Notes

1. Member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland sitting with the federal parliamentary Liberal Party.