Greens lose bid for second councillor — by 311 votes

Just 311 extra votes would have seen the Greens win only their second ever Brisbane City Council ward, with a veteran LNP councillor clinching victory in the final count.

Donna Burns and her Greens team threw everything at a bid to take Paddington ward from the LNP but came up 311 votes short.

A massive surge in support for the Greens in inner-Brisbane was not enough for one of its star candidates to win the up-market Paddington ward, the final count shows.

Former emergency nurse and change consultant Donna Burns and her team of volunteers threw everything at the campaign but fell short by just 1.42 per cent — or just 311 votes.

Ms Burns secured a 6 per cent swing, taking her to 49.29 per cent of the two-party preferred vote, or 10,753 votes.

$1 for 28 days: Full digital subscription

If she had pulled off a victory she would have become the first indigenous woman and only the second indigenous person to be elected to Council.

When contacted last week, Ms Burns said it was too early to speculate about whether she would run at the next election but was proud of having come so close to winning.

Greens smash it in inner city, westside wards

LNP’s man in The Gap defeats prominent Labor family — twice

Moggill MP vows to take on Electoral Commission if it fines people for not voting

Veteran LNP Councillor Peter Matic clinched 50.71 per cent, or 11,064 votes on a two-party preferred basis.

He valiantly fought off the challenge, the biggest and best funded Greens campaign in Brisbane, which was highly visible thanks to a large number of Greens election signs along every major arterial road in the ward.

Brisbane City Councillor Peter Matic. Picture: AAP/David Clark

Cr Matic said he was already back at work, after taking a short break on the Easter long weekend.

“I want to thank the people of Paddington for their support and will be working hard for them to deliver on our campaign promises,’’ he said.

“These include our renewal plan for the retail precincts on the Terraces (Given and Latrobe terraces at Paddington), at Park Rd (Milton) and Rosalie.

“Particularly now with that we have coronavirus it is more important than ever to traders to give them a hand.

“I will also be working hard on an upgrade for Gregory Park (Milton, next to Milton State School) and the Gregory Park toilet block.

“We’ve also got a lot of work to do dealing with the virus and implementing the Lord Mayor’s (Adrian Schinner) citywide revitalisation program.’’

The Greens’ only state MP, Michael Berkman, who won a nailbiter of a campaign in his Indooroopilly-based seat of Maiwar, predicted this week that the party could win up to seven state seats at the October election, based on its strong showing in the Council campaign.

But political analyst Dr Paul Williams believed that was highly unlikely and the Greens would have to clinch 35-40 per cent of the primary vote to have a chance of winning seats.