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. 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. Since 1989, when the party came back to power after thirty-two years in Opposition, all its leaders have become
premier despite two spells in Opposition in 1996–98 and 2012–2015.
Membership and voter base 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. 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.
Membership figures == Ideology ==