Preceded by Clive Palmer | Citizenship Australian | |
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Born 7 May 1974 (age 42) ( 1974-05-07 ) Political party Liberal National (state)
Liberal (federal) Political parties Liberal National Party of Queensland (state), Liberal Party of Australia (federal) Profiles | ||
Edward Lynam "Ted" O'Brien (born 7 May 1974) is an Australian politician. He has been the Liberal National Party of Queensland member for Fairfax in the Australian House of Representatives since being elected at the 2016 federal election.
O'Brien won the seat in the 2016 election, after having lost it to Clive Palmer by only 53 votes in the 2013 election. For most of the 44th Parliament, constituents in Fairfax had come to O'Brien for help, since Palmer was all but invisible there. Indeed, O'Brien claimed that many residents considered him to be their de facto MP.
O'Brien had been priming for a rematch against Palmer in 2016, but Palmer announced he would not seek reelection. Fairfax has historically been a comfortably safe LNP seat in a "traditional" two-party matchup (Labor vs. Liberal/LNP); the LNP would have picked up a healthy five-percent swing in a traditional two-party contest in 2013. Palmer's retirement thus made O'Brien an unbackable favourite to retake the seat for the LNP. He had previously run as the Liberal challenger in Brisbane in 2007, losing to Labor incumbent Arch Bevis.