Very simplistic hasbeen.
Have you given any thought to if voters asked them to?
What if that is true, they are elected to best serve the people of their electorate.
In hopping ship they may have done what is the very best thing for them.

Belly, if that's the case, then they should resign, then re run under their new party.

At least then, they (the voters) can follow the MP if they wish.

<< They should resign and whoever received the next highest votes, should replace them, as afterall, that's what the electorate wanted. >>

Well, no that’s not what the electorate wanted, rehctub.

The candidate with the second highest vote would usually be the one from the other Laborial party, which would be the party that the electorate most significantly voted down. So if we were to emplace the second candidate we would be doing precisely what the majority of the electorate voted against!

You’d need to give the job to someone from the same party, who would then stand for election the next time round, sort of like the way in which Bligh became Qld premier and Gillard became PM.

Either that, or call a by-election.

http://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/LEGISLTN/CURRENT/C/ConstofQA01.pdf is the url for the Queensland Constitution. I searched for the words party, parties and political and found nothing. The political parties are apparently a structure that has grown up independent of the constitution. Political parties are not mentioned in the basic law of the state. Unless they are mentioned in other laws they are not legally recognised. That does not make them illegal, but it makes them not legally recognised. Although they are definitely recognised in parliamentary rules a member is not required to maintain a party identification unless the rules specify it. Unless the rules specify it, it seems to me that a member should be free to leave or join a party with no penalty.

Our system suggests that most people vote for candidates of a particular party than for individuals.

If that's so then they should not only hold a new election, the candidate should also contribute toward the financial costs incurred.

However, when a party member crosses the floor and votes in accordance with the wishes of the constituency rather than toeing the party line, what then?

Maybe they could resign from their own party and see out their time as an independent but not be allowed to join another party.

It's a tricky question.

Unless you vote for an independent, you primarily vote for a party. If the party member wishes to change allegiance then a by election is the democratic solution.

We have recently seen independents change “parties” so to speak in the form of Oakeshot and Windsor whose electorate wanted an independent that was aligned to the right while these two representatives of the people went immediately left after they won the seat.