Federal Election 2022 Queensland results: Peter Dutton holds on amid ‘Greens-slide’
The Greens are on track to pick up the Brisbane-based seats of Griffith and Ryan, while Peter Dutton survived an early scare in Dickson.
Peter Dutton has claimed victory in the electorate of Dickson after surviving an early scare on election night.
The Queensland-based frontbencher is already facing questions about whether he will be the next leader of the Liberal Party.
Mr Dutton, the former Queensland police officer first elected to parliament in 2001, had unsuccessfully stood in the leadership vote that delivered the prime ministership to Scott Morrison in 2018.
To a crowd of supporters at a Brisbane hotel Saturday night, Mr Dutton acknowledged it had been a tough election for the Coalition
“We as a Liberal family have suffered a terrible day today,” he said.
Mr Dutton said his thoughts were with his colleagues who had not been re-elected.
“I want to acknowledge the pain they’re going through tonight,” he said.
At one stage on the night, Mr Dutton appeared to be in trouble with a swing of about 4 per cent reducing his primary vote to 40.9 per cent.
But after 65 per cent of the ballot papers counted, Mr Dutton is ahead on a projected two-party-preferred vote of 52.49 per cent over Labor’s Ali France on 47.51 per cent.
Ms France, who contested the seat in 2019, has had a swing against her of about 0.4 per cent, while the Greens are on 13 per cent of the primary vote after a boost of 3.3 per cent.
But the big story in Queensland was the surge in support for The Greens across Brisbane.
The progressive party is set to pick-up Labor’s seat of Griffith – long-held by former prime minister Kevin Rudd – and the blue ribbon seat of Ryan.
The Greens are also still in contention in the Liberal-held seat of Brisbane, although at the close of counting Labor’s Madonna Jarrett looks like winning the seat.
Brisbane might be the only seat Anthony Albanese will pick up in Queensland, with Labor’s only increasing its primary vote by 0.32 per cent to 27.59 per cent.
In Ryan, Greens candidate Elizabeth Watson-Brown has secured a 10.78 per cent favourable swing to garner 31.50 per cent of the primary vote.
With more than half of the vote counted, incumbent Liberal MP Julian Simmonds is on 37.51 per cent of the primary – a swing of 10.50 per cent against him.
With Labor’s Peter Cossar on 21.94 per cent, The Greens are likely to win the seat on a two party preferred basis.
The leafy seat, taking in the affluent suburbs in Brisbane’s west, is almost certainly going to fall after being held by the Liberals for all but eight months since it was designated in 1949.
In Griffith, Greens candidate, Max Chandler-Mather, received a massive 11.41 per cent swing in his favour to secure 35.60 per cent of the primary vote, with almost 60 per cent of the ballots counted.
Incumbent Terri Butler, Labor’s environment spokeswoman suffered a 2.41 swing to 28.01 per cent and was third behind the Liberals on 30.24 per cent.
But Labor still has a chance in Griffith if Ms Butler is able to close the gap on the LNP with the count of postal votes and take second spot on the primary vote.
She would then hope to win the majority of LNP preferences to beat The Greens on a two party preferred basis.
Greens leader and MP for Melbourne Adam Bandt claimed victory in Griffith and Ryan, which would triple his party’s representation in the House of Representatives.
“This is a Greens-slide,” he said.
“We have won Griffith and Ryan and we are on track in Brisbane, MacNamara and Richmond, and other target seats are still unresolved.
“In the coming days, if there is a minority Parliament we will work towards delivering a stable, effective and progressive government for the country.”
In the seat of Brisbane, Labor is on track to win with 27.82 per cent of the primary vote with almost 60 per cent of the vote.
Incumbent Trevor Evans is on 36.34 per cent – a swing against him of 10.93 per cent – and The Greens have secured a swing of 5.77 per cent to 27.82 per cent of the primary vote.
On a two-party preferred basis, Labor would win Brisbane.
Meanwhile, Queensland’s most marginal seat of Lilley has once again become a Labor stronghold after the Liberal’s candidate was referred to police mid-campaign.
Incumbent Labor MP Anika Wells went into the election with a margin of just 0.6 per cent in the north Brisbane seat, long held by former treasurer Wayne Swan.
After almost a quarter of the vote has been counted, Ms Wells’ margin has blown out to more than 20 per cent on a two party preferred basis.
The Liberals’ candidate Vivian Lobo was referred to police for investigation after The Australian revealed he had provided false evidence to the electoral commission by claiming he lives in his electorate when the address is in fact an abandoned, unfurnished and dilapidated house.
Mr Lobo actually lived a 23-minute drive away in the up-market suburb of Windsor.
The AEC classifies registering a false address with them as being “enrolment fraud” which can carry a penalty of 12 months’ imprisonment.
The revelation and AEC referral to the Australian Federal Police appears to have hurt Mr Lobo’s candidacy, with the Liberal’s suffering an 11.22 per cent swing against them after more than 40 per cent of the vote counted.
Ms Wells has 42.68 per cent of the primary vote – after securing a 5.51 per cent swing to Labor – and leads Mr Lobo, who is on 27.65 per cent and The Greens Melissa Stevens, who is on 18.36 per cent
On a two-party preferred basis, Ms Wells has 60.56 per cent of the vote compared to Mr Lobo on 39.44 per cent.
Clive Palmer’s big-spending bid for a senate seat appears to have failed.
After pouring up to $100m of his wealth into the United Australia Party’s campaign, Mr Palmer was outpolled by Legalise Cannabis Australia in the Queensland senate race.
With 1.1m senate votes tallied on Saturday night, the UAP won 4.7 per cent of votes behind the LCA on 6.7 per cent.
After preferences, senate candidates need 14.3 per cent of votes to secure a quota.
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