Labor fears of Qld wipe-out averted

Clive Palmer, who's on track to win a seat in Queensland, says he can win over the nation. Source: AAP

LABOR fears of a near electoral wipe-out in Queensland have been averted, with defeated prime minister Kevin Rudd's team likely to hold at least three-quarters of its seats.

Two Labor-held electorates are still in doubt, however, as counting continues in the northern Brisbane seat of Petrie and the Rockhampton-based electorate of Capricornia.

In Petrie, outgoing parliamentary secretary Yvette D'Ath trails her Liberal National Party rival Luke Howarth by 600 votes.

The 2.97 per cent swing against her was less than the national average of 3.5 per cent against Labor but much greater than the state-wide swing of 0.86 per cent.

Mr Howarth was confident preferences from mining magnate Clive Palmer's Palmer United Party would help him wrest back the seat for the coalition, after six years in Labor hands.

"I hope so," the small business owner told AAP.

"It's too early to call. I always knew it would be close. I never believed it would be an easy win."

The return of Mr Rudd, a Queenslander, to the Labor leadership in June, following the ousting of Julia Gillard, also may have helped Labor's chances.

Michelle Landry, the Liberal National candidate in Capricornia, certainly thinks so as she trails Labor's Peter Freeleagus by 140 votes, after achieving a 3.58 per cent swing against the ALP.

"If Gillard had stayed in there, it would have been a total whitewash," she said.

"With Kevin, they did have a resurgence. That had turned around in the last couple of weeks."

Outgoing Labor MP Kirsten Livermore had held the seat since 1998.

Mr Rudd's Labor nemesis Wayne Swan, a former treasurer, was returned in his seat of Lilley.

Backbencher Graham Perrett, who had held Labor's most marginal seat in Queensland, achieved a swing towards him in Moreton.

Mr Swan's former chief of staff Jim Chalmers easily won the southern Brisbane seat of Rankin, following the retirement of former trade minister Craig Emerson.

In neighbouring Forde defeated star Labor candidate Peter Beattie, a former Queensland premier, was happy to hail Mr Chalmers.

"Jim Chalmers in Rankin is one of our future leaders," Mr Beattie said.

"He's someone with enormous ability, a fantastic individual."

Eccentric entrepreneur Clive Palmer stands a strong chance of winning the Sunshine Coast seat of Fairfax on preferences, which would make him Australia's richest federal MP.

Labor went into the election holding eight out of Queensland's 30 seats but early exit polls had predicted the PM almost losing his own electorate of Griffith, as Labor lost six seats in the Sunshine State.

In the Senate, former rugby league premiership winner Glenn Lazarus is likely to have claimed a seat for the Palmer United Party.

Nationally, Labor's primary vote of 33 per cent was possibly the worst in a century but the party was spared the humiliation of 1975 and 1996, when it won just one and two seats in Queensland.

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