Labor warns Greens as it wins tough inner-city battle in Griffith
Deputy Premier Jackie Trad has taken aim at the Greens in the Brisbane seat of Griffith for going after "progressive" Terri Butler after Labor held on to the seat in one of the few bright spots for the party in Queensland on a disastrous election night for the ALP.
Ms Butler held off a strong push from the LNP and the Greens to retain the inner-southside seat.
Her win prompted an angry warning from Ms Trad, who spoke against the Greens as Labor volunteers shouted “shame, shame, shame”.
“Rather than take on a tough seat, rather than take on a terrible Tory, they took on our Terri Butler," Ms Trad said.
“And let us not forget that going forward.”
Ms Butler did not formally claim Griffith on Saturday night, but delivered a rousing speech to her campaign workers, who helped her win as the Labor vote in Queensland slumped to about 4 per cent.
“I know it has been a hard night for some of our colleagues across the country,” she said.
Ms Butler pointed out it was the Labor Party that saw Australia through the global financial crisis and called on the crowd to pull out their Medicare cards for Bob Hawke.
“Hold them up, hold them up. That is what the Labor Party did, that is what the Labor Party did for Australia,” she said.
“We can all very proud of our efforts today.”
She said there was still a large number of pre-poll votes to be counted, but told her supporters they had secured a 1.2 per cent swing.
With 71 per cent of votes counted last night Ms Butler had 52.63 per cent of the two-party preferred vote - boosted by Greens preferences - with the LNP’s Olivia Roberts securing 48.57 per cent.
Greens candidate Max Chandler-Mather won 24 per cent of the first preference votes, a 7.1 per cent swing to the Greens since the 2016 federal election.
Mr Chandler-Mather said he was shocked by the "weird" Australian result, but in other ways "not surprised".
"Because right now, the level of political debate - and what is on offer from the two major parties - is nothing," he said.
"As they move closer together and as people's lives get tougher and our hope for the future shrink of course people are switching off."
He said he was proud of the swing to the Greens in Griffith.
"It is looking like we may be getting one of the biggest swings of any lower house seat on the House of Representatives across the country," he said.
Mr Chandler-Mather said the Greens scored a 17 per cent swing at booths in Greenslopes and 10 per cent swings to them in other booths.
On first preferences, Ms Butler secured 30.9 per cent of the primary votes, down 2.2 per cent, while Ms Roberts attracted 41 per cent of the vote for the LNP, down 0.1 per cent.
Ms Butler credited her win to concentrating on local issues, to speaking on issues that impacted her local electorate.
“Traffic congestion. We said those two words a lot, but we said them because they matter,” she said.
“Every time we said it we did it because that is what people actually care about, that is what we do care about.”
Ms Trad said the overall result around the nation was not the result Labor was looking to achieve.
“We were hoping for something that isn’t as tight as we are seeing unfold across out TV screens,” she said.
Ms Trad said the roomful of ALP volunteers and party officials there was still of a lot of pre-poll votes to count.
“Here in Griffith it was always going to be tough,” she said.
“But I am so proud that each and every one of you lifted Terri up on your shoulders and worked hard every single day.”