By Dominique Tassell
Locals took to the booths on 21 May, voting Member for Maranoa David Littleproud back into his seat.
Across the rest of the country, seats swung towards the Labor Party.
While not all seats have been declared at the time of print, Labor is sitting on 74 of the necessary 76 seats to form a majority government.
Anthony Albanese and his senior leadership and economics team were sworn in on Monday.
The PM-elect declared he wants to “change the country”.
In Maranoa, the Liberal National Party experienced a 1.1 per cent swing against them.
At the time of print, 66 per cent of the vote had been counted with Mr Littleproud receiving 54.5 per cent of the primary vote, or 37,839 votes.
If a candidate gets more than 50 per cent of the formal first preference votes, an absolute majority, they are immediately elected.
Even though they are elected, a full preference count will be completed to show how the electorate voted.
After preferences, Mr Littleproud is sitting at 71.4 per cent of the vote.
Labor candidate Dave Kerrigan came in second in the primary vote, with 16.1 per cent of the vote or 11,179 votes.
This is in contrast to the 2019 election when after preferences Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party (PHON) came in second with 27.5 per cent of the vote.
PHON’s Mike Kelly came in third in first preference votes, with 12.1 per cent of the vote or 8,389 votes and a 2.5 per cent swing against the party.
United Australia’s Nathan McDonald received 7.4 per cent of the vote or 5,124 votes.
Greens candidate Ellisa Parker received 4.9 per cent of the vote or 3,433 votes.
Shooters, Fishers and Farmers candidate Malcolm J Richardson received 3.9 per cent of the vote or 2,732 votes.
Federation Party candidate Brett James Tunbridge received 1.1 per cent of the vote or 796 votes.
The election results have sparked rumours a split between the Liberal Party and National Party could be on the cards.
The Nationals held all 16 of their lower house seats in the election, though many did experience a swing against them.
The Liberal Party has likely lost six inner-city seats to ‘Teal Independents’ promising more action on climate change and better conditions for women.
They may have also lost two seats to the Greens in Brisbane alone.
There seems to be division over whether action for or against climate change is to blame for the loss of Liberal seats.
As is the National Party’s custom, there will be a spill over leadership positions next week when the party room meets.
Mr Littleproud has been rumoured as a possible replacement leader.
Nationals Leader Barnaby Joyce stated earlier this week that the Coalition agreement “always finishes at the end of any term” and he said the possibility of a split would be “a decision for both parties”.
