The previous Member for Ryan was John Moore, who represented the electorate from 1975 to 2001. He resigned from Parliament on 5 February 2001 and the writ for the by-election was issued on 9 February 2001.

Demographic Rating:	Outer Metropolitan
Seat Status:	Marginal Labor
3 October 1998 Election:
Two Party Preferred:	LP:	59.52%
	ALP:	40.48%
17 March By-election:
Two Candidate Preferred:	LP:	49.83%
	ALP:	50.17%

A total of 9 candidates nominated for the 17 March 2001 Ryan by-election compared with 8 at the 1998 federal election. There were 87,634 electors enrolled for the 17 March 2001 by-election. The Divisional Returning Officer for Ryan declared Leonie Short (ALP) as the new Member on 20 May 2001.

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
#SHORT, Leonie	ALP	29,173	38.68
STAGG, Warren	IND	440	0.58
HYLAND, Terry	IND	822	1.09
MOORE, Jody	IND	1,351	1.79
HASSALL, Andrew R	CTA	955	1.27
STASSE, Mike	QG	4,608	6.11
TUCKER, Bob	LP	32,571	43.19
FREEMARIJUANA, Nigel David	HMP	1,685	2.23
DENGATE, Lyn	DEM	3,808	5.05
.....	GRN	0	0.00
.....	OTH	0	0.00
.....	HAN	0	0.00
.....	FST	0	0.00
.....	OTH	0	0.00
FORMAL		75,413	97.04
INFORMAL		2,304	2.96
TOTAL		77,717	88.68

Full Distribution of Preferences	Party	Votes	%
#SHORT, Leonie	ALP	37,834	50.17
TUCKER, Bob	LP	37,579	49.83