The 2001 Aston by-election was held in the Australian electorate of Aston in Victoria on 14 July 2001. The by-election was triggered by the death of the sitting member, the Liberal Party of Australia's Peter Nugent, on 24 April 2001. The writ for the by-election was issued on 1 June 2001.

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2001 Aston by-election

14 July 2001

First party Second party   Candidate Chris Pearce Kieran Boland Party Liberal Labor Popular vote 31,640 28,716 Percentage 40.73% 36.96% Swing 7.76pp 1.55pp TPP 50.58% 49.42% TPP swing 3.36pp 3.36pp

MP before election Peter Nugent Liberal Elected MP Chris Pearce Liberal

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The by-election was an important test for the Liberal Party. The federal Liberal government had introduced a controversial Goods and Services Tax just over a year before, and unpopular sentiment surrounding the government and its GST were believed to have led to the defeat of the Coalition in Western Australia and Queensland state elections in landslides.^[1] The Liberals had also lost the seat of Ryan in a recent by-election, and the ALP led by Kim Beazley was ahead in opinion polls.

Chris Pearce won the by-election, retaining Aston for the Liberal Party, but suffering a swing of 3.66%. Prime Minister John Howard appeared on the first episode of the ABC program Insiders the next day, where he suggested that Labor's electoral momentum had been held in check, and the government was back in the game:

I believe that the Government is well and truly back in the game. If there were an unstoppable momentum for Labor to win the federal election, they'd have rolled us over in Aston.

— John Howard, Insiders, ABC TV, 15 July 2001^[1]

The Howard government reportedly spent $700,000 on political advertising in the lead-up to the by-election.^[2]

• List of Australian federal by-elections
• 2023 Aston by-election