Division of Hinkler

"Hinkler" redirects here. For other uses, see Hinkler (disambiguation).

The Division of Hinkler is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland. It includes the city of Bundaberg and its surrounds. The most recent member for Hinkler is Keith Pitt of the National Party who served between 2013-2025.

Hinkler Australian House of Representatives Division
Interactive map of boundaries since the 2019 federal election
Created	1984
MP	Vacant
Namesake	Bert Hinkler
Electors	117,306 (2022)
Area	3,504 km2 (1,352.9 sq mi)
Demographic	Provincial and rural

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

Bert Hinkler, the division's namesake

The division was created in 1984 and is named after Bert Hinkler, the great pioneer Australian aviator.

The seat is located in coastal Queensland, including the towns of Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Childers, Gayndah and Monto.

The electoral division had previously centred on Gladstone and its surrounding area. On those boundaries, it was a marginal seat that traded hands between the Australian Labor Party and the National Party of Australia. However, after a redistribution in 2006, the Gladstone area, a Labor bastion, was transferred to the Division of Flynn. This seemingly consolidated the Nationals' hold on the seat. While National incumbent Paul Neville was nearly swept out in 2007 due in part to Queensland swinging heavily to Labor under Kevin Rudd, he survived in part due to Labor-leaning Gladstone being replaced with conservative-leaning Hervey Bay. He was reelected with a large enough swing in 2010 to turn Hinkler into a safe seat for the merged Liberal National Party.

Members

Image		Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Bryan Conquest (1930–2018)	Nationals	1 December 1984 – 11 July 1987	Lost seat
		Brian Courtice (1950–)	Labor	11 July 1987 – 13 March 1993	Lost seat
		Paul Neville (1940–2019)	Nationals[a]	13 March 1993 – 5 August 2013	Retired
		Keith Pitt (1969–)		7 September 2013 – 19 January 2025	Served as minister under Morrison. Resigned

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Hinkler

Hervey Bay and Great Sandy Strait from orbit

2025 Australian federal election: Hinkler

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Greens	Andrew McLean
	Liberal National	David Batt
	Independent	Michael O'Brien
	Labor	Trish Mears
	Family First	Kerry Petrus
	One Nation	Tyler Carman
	Trumpet of Patriots	Robert Blohberger
Total formal votes
Informal votes
Turnout

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

2022 Australian federal election: Hinkler^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal National	Keith Pitt	42,720	42.13	−3.90
	Labor	Jason Scanes	23,634	23.31	+0.38
	Independent	Jack Dempsey	13,236	13.05	+13.05
	One Nation	Zak Menhennett	8,837	8.71	−6.09
	United Australia	Kristie Nash	7,417	7.31	+2.93
	Greens	Andrew McLean	5,562	5.48	+1.76
Total formal votes			101,406	96.73	+4.55
Informal votes			3,431	3.27	−4.55
Turnout			104,837	89.49	−3.21
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal National	Keith Pitt	60,918	60.07	−4.43
	Labor	Jason Scanes	40,488	39.93	+4.43
	Liberal National hold		Swing	−4.43

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

Alluvial diagram for preference flows in the seat of Hinkler 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 National Party.