1988 Groom by-election

1988 Groom by-election

9 April 1988

First party Second party Third party   Candidate Bill Taylor David Russell Linda Dwyer Party Liberal National Labor Popular vote 20,651 17,814 14,973 Percentage 33.3% 28.8% 24.2% Swing 19.9 20.1 8.2 TPP 62.4% 37.6% TPP swing 62.4 25.2

MP before election Tom McVeigh National Elected MP Bill Taylor Liberal

A by-election was held for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Groom on 9 April 1988. It was triggered by the resignation of National Party MP Tom McVeigh.

The by-election was won by Liberal Party candidate Bill Taylor.

A month before the poll, Taylor was publicly backed by former Queensland premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, who had been forced to resign as premier several months earlier, after losing the support of his National Party colleagues. Bjelke-Petersen said the Nationals had lost their way and turned their backs on traditional conservative policies.^[1]

• Australian Democrats – Mark Carew, the party's 1987 candidate.
• Australian Labor Party – Linda Dwyer, the party's 1987 candidate.
• Liberal Party of Australia – Bill Taylor, an officer in the Royal Australian Navy.
• National Party of Australia – David Russell.
• Independent – Peter Consandine, republican campaigner who later founded the Republican Party of Australia.
• Independent – Vincent Burke. Burke later contested the Australian Senate as an ungrouped independent in 1990.

• List of Australian federal by-elections