William Edward Baxter (1907–1978) was a politician in Queensland, Australia. He was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.

William Edward Baxter was born on 29 May 1907 in Chinchilla, Queensland, the son of Catherine Baxter. He attended Chinchilla State School. He married May Reardon on 29 Sep 1929; the couple had 2 daughters. He worked for Queensland Railways as a cleaner and clerk.^[1][2]

At the 1953 state election, Baxter successfully contested the electoral district of Norman as a candidate of the Labor and entered the Queensland Legislative Assembly. He held the seat in the 1956 and 1957 elections.^[3]

At the 1960 election, he successfully contested the neighbouring seat of Hawthorne, which he retained in 1963. He was not pre-selected as the ALP candidate for the 1966 election (Thomas Burton, assistant secretary of the Printing Employees Union was chosen) so he contested as an independent Labor candidate, for which he was expelled from the ALP.^[1][4] However, on election day (28 May 1966), he lost to Liberal candidate, Bill Kaus.^[3][5]

Baxter died on 5 July 1978 in Brisbane.^[1] He was buried at Balmoral Cemetery, Brisbane on 7 July 1978.^[6]

• Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1953–1956; 1956–1957; 1957–1960; 1960–1963; 1963–1966