1983 Queensland state election

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The Queensland state election was held on 22 October 1983 to elect all 82 members of the Legislative Assembly. It produced a sixth straight term for the National Party led by Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

Results:
- National Party: 41 seats (up 6), 38.93% of the popular vote
- Labor: 32 seats (up 7), 43.98% of the popular vote
- Liberal: 8 seats (down 14), 14.88% of the popular vote
- Two-party preferred: Nationals 53.4% to Labor 46.6%
Turnout was about 91.7%.

The Nationals were just short of a majority (they needed 42 seats). The Liberals had broken with their coalition earlier in the year after Liberal leader Llewellyn Edwards was ousted and replaced by Terry White, who then led his MPs to sit on the crossbench. Bjelke-Petersen prorogued Parliament to govern for nine weeks without a floor vote.

Campaign notes:
- Bjelke-Petersen focused his message on keeping Liberal voters from shifting to Labor.
- Clive Palmer served as the Nationals’ campaign director.

After the election, Bjelke-Petersen invited Liberal MPs to defect to the Nationals. On 25 October, two Liberals, Brian Austin and Don Lane, joined the Nationals, giving them a narrow majority of 43 seats for the first time. This left a much smaller Liberal group and ended White’s leadership and Innes’ deputy role. Labor had some gains but remained unable to challenge Bjelke-Petersen’s dominance.