Ryan by-election, 2001

The 2001 Ryan by-election was held in the Australian electorate of Ryan in Queensland on 17 March 2001. The by-election was triggered by the retirement of the sitting member, the Liberal Party of Australia's John Moore, on 5 February 2001. The writ for the by-election was issued on 9 February 2001.

Ryan had been in Liberal hands since its creation in 1949, and for most of that time had been reasonably safe for that party. John Moore had held Ryan since 1975, and he had been a minister in the Fraser and Howard governments. When a Cabinet reshuffle saw him lose the Defence portfolio, Moore resigned immediately. His retirement came at a very bad time for the government. The Coalition had just been defeated in the Western Australia and Queensland state elections, and the public reaction to the GST introduced eight months earlier was still worrying the Liberals.

The Queensland election saw the reelection of the Labor Government of Peter Beattie. Ironically Beattie was Moore's Labor opponent in Ryan at the 1980 federal election in which Moore defeated Beattie.

Comparisons were drawn with the 1975 by-election in the Tasmanian electorate of Bass: both had resulted from the resignation of a Defence Minister (former Labor Deputy Prime Minister Lance Barnard in 1975). Labor's landslide loss in Bass was linked to the defeat of the Whitlam government several months later.

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