LNP wins Fadden byelection with swing to the opposition

Voters in the Queensland seat of Fadden have swung towards the federal opposition, with the Liberal National Party winning the byelection on Saturday night.

The LNP candidate Cameron Caldwell, a Gold Coast councillor, held the seat for the party with an expected swing of more than 2 per cent.

Cameron Caldwell, left, is on track to keep Fadden in LNP hands.Credit: Paul Harris

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the “resounding result” in Fadden was because of cost-of-living pressures on households.

“Like other people right across the country in marginal seats in outer metropolitan areas, people are hurting at the moment and the Labor economic experiment failing Australia,” Dutton said, standing alongside Caldwell and state Opposition Leader David Crisafulli.

“So Australians are hurting and there is a better way.”

The byelection was triggered by the resignation of scandal-ridden Stuart Robert, who held the seat on a 10.6 per cent margin.

Labor’s campaign over the last week was focused heavily on Robert’s oversight of the unlawful robo-debt scheme, which he shut down as government services minister in November 2019 following advice from the solicitor-general.

The poll is a turnaround for Dutton from the Aston byelection in April, which saw Labor take a seat off the Coalition with a swing of more than 6 per cent.

But this week, Labor played down expectations in Fadden, repeatedly saying anything less than the average swing towards an opposition of 4 per cent would be a failure for Dutton.

Labor cabinet minister Murray Watt said on Saturday night the government was never going to win the seat and it was no major victory for the opposition to win one of its safest seats.

“We have always known from the very beginning that we had absolutely no chance of winning this byelection,” Watt told the ABC.

“There was no chance of it being a repeat of Aston, but we felt that it was important to stand a candidate here, partly to give people the choice, but also to make sure that we continue building our presence on the Gold Coast.”

Caldwell said in his victory speech that the result showed that the Liberal Party could return to government under Dutton.

“We are a party that must return to government in order to restore the faith that Australians have in government,” he said.

Peter Dutton is seen during the Queensland Liberal National Party annual conference earlier this month.Credit: AAP

“Our party values are Australian party values and Peter Dutton is a man of integrity, of great thought and great care and he will be a magnificent prime minister and I look forward to supporting him on that journey.”

Liberal MP and former cabinet minister Karen Andrews said it was “clearly not a good night for Labor based on these figures”.

“I know they would say that they expected that they would lose some margin in this election but ... they were putting their heart and soul into trying to do damage to the LNP,” she said.

“For Labor, this is a very disappointing outcome and maybe they need to rethink some of their strategy.”

Liberal senator James McGrath said on Saturday night that Labor made a mistake by focusing heavily on robo-debt and Robert.

“Our candidate was Cameron Caldwell, people were voting for Cameron Caldwell,” he told the ABC.

“We wanted to make the focus about Cameron Caldwell.

“Peter Dutton spent a lot of time here. He spent more time here than Anthony Albanese.”

Labor’s Letitia Del Fabbro and Treasurer Jim Chalmers talk at Arundel State School during polling day for the Fadden byelection.Credit: AAP

Labor candidate Letitia Del Fabbro, a nurse educator, conceded defeat to party supporters at 8pm. Del Fabbro said that during the campaign she had relished the chance to talk about Labor policies including cheaper childcare.

She confirmed she had called Caldwell minutes before to congratulate him on the win.

“I guess it has always been an important message to the LNP to not take the Gold Coast for granted,” she said. “And I think together we can build on this experience to build Labor on the Gold Coast.”

The Australian Electoral Commission had earlier raised concerns over low voter turnout in pre-polling for Fadden, an electorate on the northern end of the Gold Coast with a median age of 39. Turnout was expected to be as low as 80 per cent.

Casting his vote with his wife, Lauren, at a polling booth on Saturday morning, Caldwell was asked if Robert’s involvement in the robo-debt scandal was affecting voters. He said cost of living and crime were bigger issues in the electorate.

“Those are issues that are really starting to bite in their households and it’s whether people can put food on the table and keep the lights switched on,” Caldwell told Sky News.

“That’s really what’s on their mind as they walk into the polling booth today.”

Del Fabbro said earlier in the day any swing against the LNP would be a loss to the party, while Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the average swing against a government in a byelection was about 4 per cent so anything less would be “embarrassing” for Dutton.

“Our expectations are tempered, but we couldn’t have put forward a better candidate and we’re focused on the issues that matter to people here,” he said.

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