Federal election 2022: Faces of Greens tide sweeping Qld

Years of effort have paid off as the Greens look set to clinch up to three federal seats in Queensland – but two are still on a knife’s edge.

A years-long concerted campaign that involved knocking on tens of thousands of doors has seen the Greens make historic gains in the Sunshine State – putting them on track to clinch up to three seats.

But the seat of Ryan was last night back on a knife’s edge with postal votes favouring LNP incumbent Julian Simmonds, after the Greens’ Elizabeth Watson-Brown had been in the box seat.

The race for the electorate of Brisbane was still too close to call on Sunday, with the Greens’ Stephen Bates “cautiously optimistic” he could retain his slim lead over Labor to take out the inner-city seat.

In what Greens leader Adam Bandt dubbed a “greenslide”, the party’s Max Chandler-Mather beat Labor’s Terri Butler in Griffith, while Ms Watson-Brown was on track to topple Mr Simmonds in Ryan before the late surge in postal votes last night.

Greens leader Adam Bandt (second from right) in Brisbane with candidates Stephen Bates (left), Elizabeth Watson-Brown and Max Chandler-Mather. Picture: Adam Head

Mr Chandler-Mather’s win comes after a massive campaign, which involved knocking on every door in the southside electorate and 520 Greens volunteers flooding polling booths on election day.

The latest published count as of 5pm Sunday showed Mr Chandler-Mather’s primary vote surged in polling booths across the electorate, while Labor’s and the LNP’s collapsed.

In Bulimba, his primary vote was up 12.29 points, in Coorparoo it had increased by 8.15 points and in East Brisbane it had increased by 12.3 points.

“This wasn’t just a campaign that was fought over the last six weeks – this was a campaign recognising that people are fed up with politics,” Mr Chandler-Mather said.

Ms Watson-Brown – an architect – also won big increases in the primary vote for the Greens across Ryan, securing an eight-point jump in Indooroopilly, while her vote reached 43 per cent in Toowong.

The Greens say her campaign involved 33,000 door knocks, and conversations with about 16,000 voters.

On late Sunday, Labor insiders were still hopeful their candidate, Madonna Jarrett, would pick up Brisbane following the initial counting of postal votes.

The difference in primary vote between Ms Jarrett and Mr Bates as of 5.30pm Sunday was less than 200 votes.

Some Labor members believe more resources should have been pumped into Griffith, with one source claiming there was an assumption Ms Butler would win because people assumed Anthony Albanese would win.

Another source claimed the party’s state secretary had “dropped the ball”, which left them vulnerable in Griffith and prevented gains in winnable seats. The sources said resources were pumped into a seat like Lilley which was not under threat and had an absent LNP candidate. Meanwhile Ryan was left to fend for itself without any additional support when it became clear the seat was in play.

Queensland Council of Unions general secretary Michael Clifford said it would be a “real tragedy” to lose Ms Butler. “She has supported the issues that the union has campaigned on,” he said.