QLD state election 2024: Voting results for Bundaberg, Burnett

Voters in Queensland’s most marginal seat, Labor-held Bundaberg, and one of its safest, LNP-held Burnett, are headed to the polls as the 2024 state election gets underway. Read our rolling coverage of election day as it unfolds:

The wider Bundaberg region is an election story of extremes in 2024, home not only to one of Queensland’s key battlegrounds but also one of its safest.

The wider Bundaberg region is an election story of extremes in 2024, home not only to one of Queensland’s key battlegrounds but also one of its safest.

All eyes on Saturday will be focused on Bundaberg, the state’s most marginal seat after it was narrowly won by first-time MP and former schoolteacher Tom Smith in 2020 on a 0.01 per cent margin.

Mr Smith claimed the seat by a nine-vote margin after preferences.

The Labor MP is now fighting star LNP hopeful Bree Watson to retain it for a second term.

Ms Watson, making her first tilt at state politics, is standing for the seat after stints as CEO of Bundaberg Fruit and Vegetable Growers and chair of the Queensland Horticultural Council.

All eyes on Saturday will be on Bundaberg, the state’s most marginal seat after it was won in 2020 by first-time MP and former schoolteacher Tom Smith with a 0.01 per cent margin.

She has been an outspoken critic of the Labor government’s handling of Paradise Dam, one of several major issues at the centre of the 2024 election battle in the region.

Power bill relief, progress on the new Bundaberg Hospital, crime and cost of living have been hot local issues in the four-week campaign, while Ms Watson came under fire herself from Mr Smith over her stance on abortion after a Katter Party MP raised the possibility of introducing a private members bill to overturn the laws.

Questions to Ms Watson on the matter were instead addressed by an LNP spokeswoman, who said repealing the laws was not part of the LNP plan.

Ms Watson has not directly stated her position on the subject.

Other contenders for the Bundaberg seat include The Greens’ Nat Baker, Independent Alan Corbett, Legalise Cannabis Queensland’s Ian Zunker, One Nation’s Alberto Carvalho and Independent Geoff Warham.

Burnett has been held by LNP MP Stephen Bennett since 2012, with the long term parliamentarian retaining the seat in 2020 by a 10.8 per cent margin..

Surrounding the key election battleground is one of the LNP’s safest seats.

Burnett has been held by LNP MP Stephen Bennett since 2012, with the long term parliamentarian retaining the seat in 2020 by a 10.8 per cent margin.

Between 2016 and 2020 Mr Bennett served as opposition spokesman for portfolios including environment, housing, veterans, and child safety.

His main competition for the seat on Saturday is Labor candidate Kerri Morgan, who is running for the second time.

Ms Morgan lost the 2020 election fight by more than 6800 votes after preferences.

One Nation’s Arno Blank, Legalise Cannabis Queensland’s Malcolm Parry, The Greens Esther Vale, and Independent Paul Hudson are also vying for the Burnett seat.

Electoral Commission Queensland figures show as of 2024, 41,976 registered voters were living in the Burnett.

Bundaberg is home to 37,986 registered voters, the ECQ data shows.