Election 2022: ALP takes reins with smallest Queensland holding since 1906

Labor holds the smallest proportion of Queensland seats of any incoming federal government since 1906.

ALP national president Wayne Swan said Labor ‘needed to do better in Queensland’. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Labor holds the smallest proportion of Queensland seats of any incoming federal government since 1906.

With the loss of Kevin Rudd’s former south Brisbane seat of Griffith to the Greens, the Albanese government is certain to hold just five out of the state’s 30 federal electorates.

Labor still hopes to win the seat of Brisbane from the Liberal’s Trevor Evans, who has conceded defeat, and on Thursday pulled ahead of the Greens in the count.

Despite Labor receiving a 4.52 per cent statewide swing on a two-party-preferred basis, Anthony Albanese was unable to pick up any seats outside south-east Queensland.

An analysis of election results back to Federation shows that even if Labor takes Brisbane, securing a fifth of the available electorates in the state, it is the lowest proportion held by a government since Alfred Deakin cobbled together a coalition with just a single member of his Protectionist Party out of the then nine Queensland MPs.

Scott Morrison hit the high water mark with 23 coalition MPs out of the 30 Queensland seats in 2019. Bob Hawke secured the highest proportion of a Labor government, with 15 out of the then 24 federal MPs in Queensland at the 1990 election.

A Labor strategist told The Australian Labor’s low representation was partly due to the inflated margins secured by Mr Morrison in the 2019 election.

“The other reason is that Albo didn’t have enough appeal as PM in the state,’’ the strategist said.

ALP national president Wayne Swan said Labor “needed to do better in Queensland” but double-digit margins after the 2019 election had been cut in some electorates to under 5 per cent.

“I don’t think it’s because Albanese is unpopular in Queensland or because Bill Shorten was unpopular in Queensland,’’ he said.

“The federal Labor vote in Queensland has been down for some, and I see this election as the beginning of its resurgence.”

Mr Swan dismissed claims by Greens leader Adam Bandt that there had been a “greenslide” in Queensland, with the minor party winning Griffith and the west Brisbane seat of Ryan from the Liberals, and possibly Brisbane.

“The story of the election in Queensland, as it is around the rest of the country, is the realignment and smash-up of the conservative base,’’ he said.

“The Greens have been the beneficiary of that in Ryan. And they have won Griffith. But in terms of Labor seats across the state, there are plenty of healthy swings across a dozen seats that give lie to the notion that somehow Labor in Queensland was smashed.”

Mr Swan said there had been “tactical voting” in some seats by Labor supporters because they believed there “was no chance of a Labor victory and they voted Greens’’.

In an email to LNP members, party president Lawrence Springborg said the Queensland MPs would be the “foundational bulwark” from which the Coalition rebuilt its political fortunes.

“The Queensland LNP has punched above its weight in every federal election since its formation in 2008, and last night was no exception,” he said.

“The LNP has also retained all its outer suburban aspirational seats and again this is against the national trend in all states.

“While this may give us cause for encouragement, it also places on us a great weight of responsibility as we now build back.”