1942 Cairns state by-election
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Electoral district of Cairns in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 10,309 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 67.5% ( 19.5) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1942 Cairns state by-election was held on 31 October 1942 to elect the member for Cairns in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, following the death of Labor Party MP John O'Keefe.
Lou Barnes, the brother of Bundaberg MP Frank Barnes, won the seat as a King O'Malley Labor candidate. Labor candidate David Crowley suffered a negative primary vote swing of 23.9%, with Barnes winning on 52.1% of the two-candidate-preferred result.
Following the by-election, the electoral system was changed from contingency voting to first-past-the-post after the Labor government introduced a bill to change the system. First-past-the-post was in place for Queensland state elections until full preferential voting was introduced by the Country−Liberal coalition in 1963.
Independent candidate William Griffin contested the by-election on a platform of abolishing the Queensland state parliament.