Redlands state by-election, 1985

A by-election was held in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland seat of Redlands on 2 November 1985. It was triggered by the death of sitting National Party member John Goleby.

The seat was retained by the National Party with the election of candidate Paul Clauson.

John Goleby was elected to state parliament at the 1974 state election when he won the seat of Redlands for the National Party as part of what was a landslide win for the then National-Liberal coalition. He held the seat continuously thereafter, becoming Minister for Water Resources and Maritime Services in 1982.

Goleby died in a tractor accident on his farm on 10 September 1985.

To defend the seat the National Party chose "little known" solicitor Paul Clauson, who had joined the party only four days before he was preselected. The Liberal Party—no longer in coalition with the Nationals—chose nurseryman and landscape gardener Max Bolte as their candidate, cousin of former Victorian Premier Henry Bolte.

But the chief opponent for the National Party was the Labor Party, who had last held the seat in 1974. They chose local solicitor Con Sciacca, who had been twice defeated by Goleby as the Labor candidate for Redlands at the 1977 state election and 1980 state election. Sciacca defeated two other candidates vying for Labor preselection, one of whom was state party secretary Peter Beattie. Beattie would later enter parliament as the member for Brisbane Central at the 1989 state election as serve as Premier of Queensland from 1998 to 2007. It was said that the preselection drama did Labor no favours at the start of the campaign.

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