The by-election was triggered by the death of the sitting member, the Liberal Party of Australia's Peter Nugent, on 24 April 2001.

[1] The Liberals had also lost the seat of Ryan in a recent by-election, and the ALP led by Kim Beazley was ahead in opinion polls.

Chris Pearce won the by-election, retaining Aston for the Liberal Party, but suffering a swing of 3.66%.

Prime Minister John Howard appeared on the first episode of the ABC program Insiders the next day, where he suggested that Labor's electoral momentum had been held in check, and the government was back in the game: I believe that the Government is well and truly back in the game.

If there were an unstoppable momentum for Labor to win the federal election, they'd have rolled us over in Aston.The Howard government reportedly spent $700,000 on political advertising in the lead-up to the by-election.