LNP wins 7 per cent swing, but Labor to keep it out of capital

David Crisafulli’s LNP may be on track for a net win of 17 seats, but Brisbane remains Labor heartland.

Premier David Crisafulli at the Townsville Police Station. Picture: Evan Morgan

David Crisafulli’s Liberal National Party is on track for a net win of 17 seats but is now unlikely to gain a single electorate in Labor’s Brisbane fortress as the count wraps up.

More than a week after sweeping to power at the October 26 Queensland election, the LNP leader declared his gratitude for the support of regional Queenslanders.

“I just want to express how grateful we are to the people of far north Queensland, and how humbled we are by the result we achieved here,” he said on Wednesday in Cairns, where the LNP won three of the city’s four seats.

Brisbane, where Labor built its fortress under former premier Wayne Goss in the 1990s, remains the party’s stronghold and the LNP is unlikely to pick up a single seat in the capital city’s council area.

A recount is under way in the knife-edge northern Brisbane seat of Aspley, where the result was expected to come down to fewer than 50 votes.

Labor was confident former transport minister Bart Mellish would retain Aspley, and Opposition Leader Steven Miles vowed to keep him on the frontbench.

If Mr Mellish prevailed after the recount, it would mean the LNP had failed to pick up any seats in Brisbane, despite a statewide swing of 7 per cent to Mr Crisafulli and his party.

Labor was financially backed by the union movement and directed its resources into sandbagging Brisbane seats, targeting most of its big-spending policies – such as 50 cent public transport fares – to the state’s southeast.

While Mr Miles managed to save the furniture in metropolitan Brisbane and claw back the electorate of South Brisbane from the Greens, Labor was obliterated in regional Queensland. The ALP now has only three seats north of Brisbane: Bundaberg, Gladstone and Cairns.

John Mickel, a former Labor minister and parliamentary speaker, said there was not a “shadow of a doubt” that Mr Miles had fended off a potentially worse defeat in the state’s southeast corner.

“Steven Miles surprised everyone with his campaigning ability,” said Mr Mickel, an adjunct associate professor at the Queensland University of Technology.

“There was a feeling within the Labor Party that six months ago they were in for a thrashing, not (like the election result in) 2012 by any means, but certainly not finishing with a seat count with a ‘three’ in front of it.”

Ahead of the election, Labor had 51 seats in the 93-seat parliament; the LNP had 35; the Greens had two; Katter’s Australian Party had four; and independent Sandy Bolton held Noosa.

With Aspley still undecided, Labor now has 35 seats and the LNP has 52 – a five-seat majority. The crossbench now consists of three KAP MPs, re-elected Greens MP Michael Berkman and Ms Bolton.

The Electoral Commission of Queensland’s deadline for the return of postal votes passed on Tuesday, when about half of all seats had been officially declared.

Mr Miles and his deputy, Cameron Dick, kicked off a listening tour to “reconnect” with regional Queensland voters on Wednesday, starting in Townsville, where the ALP lost all three seats.

“We want to hear from Townsville locals today and over the next four years about what they want us to do between now and 2028 to regain their trust, so that we can win back seats here, but more importantly, so that we can continue to deliver a really strong plan for our state,” Mr Miles said.