The Queensland Labor Party, officially known as the Australian Labor Party (State of Queensland)^[13] and commonly referred to simply as Queensland Labor, is the state branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in the state of Queensland.^[14] It has functioned in the state since the 1880s.^{[lower-alpha 3]} The Queensland branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) was the first Labour Party to win government in the world, when, in December 1899, following the resignation of the Dickson ministry, Labour Leader Anderson Dawson accepted to form a ministry by Lieutenant-Governor Samuel Griffith.^[15]

Quick Facts Leader, Deputy Leader ...

Queensland Labor Party Australian Labor Party (State of Queensland)
Leader	Steven Miles
Deputy Leader	Cameron Dick
President	John Battams[1]
Secretary	Kate Flanders[2]
Founded	5 August 1892; 131 years ago (5 August 1892)[3][4]
Headquarters	TLC Building, South Brisbane, Queensland
Newspaper	Queensland Labor Times
Think tank	T. J. Ryan Foundation
Youth wing	Young Labor
Women's wing	Labor Women's Network
LGBT wing	Rainbow Labor
Membership (2021)	10,000[lower-alpha 1][6]
Ideology	Labourism[7] Social democracy Democratic socialism[7][8] Historical: Socialism[lower-alpha 2][9][10][7] Agrarian socialism[9][11]
Political position	Centre-left Historical: Left-wing
National affiliation	Australian Labor
Union affiliate	QCU
Colours	Red
Slogan	"Putting Queenslanders First."[12]
Legislative Assembly	51 / 93
House of Representatives	5 / 30 (Qld seats)
Senate	3 / 12 (Qld seats)
Brisbane City Council	5 / 26
Website
queenslandlabor.org
Politics of Queensland Politics of Australia Political parties Elections

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Trade unionists in Queensland had begun attempting to secure parliamentary representation as early as the mid-1880s. William McNaughton Galloway, the president of the Seamen's Union, mounted an unsuccessful campaign as an independent in an 1886 by-election. A Workers' Political Reform Association was founded to nominate candidates for the 1888 election, at which the Brisbane Trades and Labor Council endorsed six candidates. Thomas Glassey won the seat of Bundamba at that election, becoming the first self-identified "labor" MP in Queensland. The Queensland Provincial Council of the Australian Labor Federation was formed in 1889 in an attempt to unite Labor campaign efforts. Tommy Ryan won the seat of Barcoo for the labour movement-run People's Parliamentary Association in 1892, and the Labor Party was formally established in Queensland following the first Labor-in-Politics Convention later that year.^[16]

The Queensland branch subsequently formed the first Labor government in Australia, albeit briefly, when Anderson Dawson took office for a week in 1899 after a falling out between the non-Labor forces.^[17]

Since 1989, when the party came back to power after thirty-two years in Opposition, all its leaders have become Premiers despite two spells in Opposition in 1996–98 and 2012–2015.

As of 2020, the Queensland branch has three factions: the right, headed by Annastacia Palaszczuk, the left, headed by Steven Miles, and the centralist faction, the Old Guard. Discounting Speaker Curtis Pitt, of the 47 Labor MPs, 24 belong to the Left, 16 to the Right, and 7 to the Old Guard.^[18]

As of the 2020 state election, Queensland Labor's seat distribution was as follows:

Membership and voter base

Parts of this article (those related to category) need to be updated. (January 2024)

Historically (1910s–1960s) Queensland Labor's voter base and membership has been distributed fairly equitably across the metropolitan, urban, and rural areas of the state, although maintaining a demographic majority within the South East region.^[19] Beginning in the 1970s, Queensland Labor's voter base in particular has swayed more heavily toward the metropolitan and urban areas of the state such as Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast, and Townsville, with the Country (later National) and Liberal parties competing with Labor in both regions as an electoral bloc.^[19]

Membership figures

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Membership figures[19] Year Membership Diff. 1938 11,139 — 1976 6,890 38.15 1977 — — 1978 6,618 3.95 1979 6,570 0.73 1980 6,171 6.07 1981 6,596 6.89 1982 6,776 2.73 1983 7,623 12.5 1984 8,086 6.07 1985 7,817 3.33 1986 7,756 0.78 1987 7,578 2.29

Membership figures[19] Year Membership Diff. 1988 7,125 5.98 1989 6,367 10.64 1990 7,169 12.60 1991 7,213 0.61 1992 7,246 0.46 1993 — — 1994 7,492 3.39 1995 6,800 9.24 1996 6,800 1997 — — 1998 7,937 16.72 2012 5,000 37.00 2014 9,000 80.00 2021 10,000 11.11

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Labor contests Brisbane City Council elections, and has done so since the inaugural election in 1925. It has been in opposition to the LNP (and before that, the Liberal Party) since 2008. The last Labor member to serve as Lord Mayor of Brisbane was Tim Quinn, who was defeated in 2004.^[20]

Historically, Labor also endorsed candidates outside of Brisbane, including in Ipswich, Townsville and Toowoomba.^[21]

The current Labor leader on Brisbane City Council is Jared Cassidy, who has served in the position since September 2019.^[22]