Labor has to fight to keep former premier Anna Bligh's old seat

LABOR is set to retain the vacated seat of former Queensland premier Anna Bligh.

Jackie Trad

LABOR is set to retain the vacated seat of former Queensland premier Anna Bligh.

But Queensland Labor suffered another punishing swing in today's South Brisbane by-election.

With more than half the vote counted, Jackie Trad had shed nearly six per cent of the primary vote Labor recorded at the March 24 general election. The annihilation of Ms Bligh's government precipitated her resignation from the state parliament.

Labor's apparent saviour in South Brisbane, held by Ms Bligh since 1995, was a strong showing from Greens candidate Jo-Anne Bragg, who picked up 20 per cent of the vote.

Her preferences are set to push Ms Trad across the line, even though her base vote fell 5.7 per cent on that Ms Bligh secured five weeks ago, when Labor's margin in South Brisbane was slashed from 15 per cent to five per cent. Liberal National Party candidate Clem Grehan lost 0.8 per cent of the primary vote he recorded at the general election, but headed Ms Trad 37 per cent to 33 per cent.

The Electoral Commission of Queensland's notional distribution of preferences, which flow heavily from the Greens to Labor, still gave Ms Trad 52.85 per cent of the two-party preferred vote to 47.15 per cent for Mr Grehan.

Ms Bligh made her first public appearance since Labor's devastating election defeat to rally support for Ms Trad, a personal friend. Premier Campbell Newman gave Mr Grehan a late push.

Ms Bligh defended her decision to quit parliament, saying it was the right thing to do after the ALP's crushing defeat.

Had Labor lost South Brisbane its numbers would have been reduced to just six in the 89-seat state parliament.

In local government elections, Mr Newman's successor as Brisbane mayor, Graham Quirk, was cruising towards an easy victory over Labor's Ray Smith.

The LNP was on track to win 18 of the 26 Brisbane City Council wards.

Heather Beattie, the wife of former ALP premier Peter Beattie, failed in her tilt at the Central ward.