Andrew Fraser loss throws open ALP top job

ANDREW Fraser became one of the election's biggest scalps as voters rebuked the government in which he had served as deputy premier and treasurer.

ANDREW Fraser became one of the election's biggest scalps as voters rebuked the government in which he had served as deputy premier and treasurer.

Mr Fraser conceded shortly before 7.30pm that he would lose his seat to the LNP's first-time candidate, Saxon Rice, putting the future leadership of Labor up for grabs.

"A lot of people in the Labor Party are going to feel a lot of hurt after this . . . I take my share of the responsibility," he said.

Insisting Labor remained a "force for good", he would not be drawn on his own future but said that he would spend time with his young son and daughter who were born after he was first elected.

"Tonight I lost my seat in the Parliament but I won my family. Tomorrow I get to wake up and spend a day with my wife and my kids. That's going to be a day well spent," Mr Fraser said.

Ms Rice - a former staffer of Kevin Rudd's wife, Therese Rein - has been regarded as a strong candidate and as Cabinet material.

"There certainly was conveyed to me that feeling of wanting change," Ms Rice, 35, said from Wests rugby club during celebrations with about 100 supporters. "I never thought this seat was going to be an easy seat to win . . . I'm most grateful to the people of Mount Coot-tha."

Wiping out the man destined to lead Labor before the landslide, Ms Rice held 55 per cent of the vote, two-party preferred, with two thirds of the votes counted.

In the rush of support for the LNP, the Greens were down on their usual strong support in the electorate where Adam Stone had been regarded as their best chance of securing a state seat.

Mr Fraser was hounded throughout the day by a controversy over flyers distributed in his electorate supporting civil unions, with the LNP taking a complaint to the Supreme Court.