Greens face devastating wipeout in Queensland 2024 election as dire warning signs emerge at the federal level – and why dumped premier Steven Miles is being blamed for the disastrous result

The Greens are in danger of losing both their Queensland seats in what is shaping up as a disastrous state election for the minor party.

Two Greens seats in Brisbane could flip to Labor and the LNP respectively as counting resumed on Sunday after Saturday night’s election, which could spell trouble for three federal seats held by the party in overlapping city electorates.

At close of counting Labor were in a good position to claw back the South Brisbane seat from Greens MP Amy MacMahon while the LNP, which will form the new state government, was hot on the heels of Michael Berkman in Maiwar.

Ms MacMahon, who snatched South Brisbane from former ALP deputy premier Jackie Trad in 2020, was well behind Labor’s Barbara O’Shea with 57 to 41 on a two party preferred basis with 63 per cent of the vote counted.

The deciding factor appeared to have been the LNP not preferencing their votes to the Greens, as they did in 2020, but instead placing them under Labor shooting Ms O’Shea into the lead despite Ms MacMahon narrowly winning the primary vote.

In Maiwar Mr Berkman had eked out a lead of 51 to 48 over the LNP’s Natasha Winters with over 72 per cent of the vote counted.

The close race has largely blotted out the healthy margin of 6.3 per cent that Mr Berkman previously held the seat by and the Greens MP did not hold back in blaming Labor for targeting his party.

‘The other big takeaway from me is a Labor government more interested in fighting to keep the Greens out than fighting the LNP to retain government,’ he told Sky News.

The close race has largely blotted out the healthy margin of 6.3 per cent that Mr Berkman previously held the seat by and the Greens MP did not hold back in blaming Labor for targeting his party

‘If Labor and the LNP want to work together to fight against us, that’s the whole political establishment up against us here.’

Policies Mr Berkman accused Labor leader Steven Miles of stealing from the Greens included free school lunches, much cheaper public transport with the introduction of 50 cent bus fares, free GP clinics and higher taxes of mining companies. 

However, Queensland Labor MP Grace Grace told The Australian the Greens had ‘thrown everything’ at inner-Brisbane seats, including her own and ‘it hasn’t materialised for them’.

‘My sense was they were going backwards and I think that is what we are seeing in the results,’ she said.

‘The Greens promise the world and they don’t deliver. People have seen Greens get elected in federal and state seats and then they haven’t delivered.’

Despite the Greens being at risk of having no representation in the next Queensland parliament and falling a long way short of their predicted possible haul of four seats, let alone their stated aim of six, Mr Berkman emphasized the positives.

Two Greens seats in Brisbane could flip to Labor and the LNP respectively as counting resumed on Sunday after Saturday night’s election, which could spell trouble for three federal seats held by the party in overlapping city electorates (pictured, Greens leader Adam Bandt and MP Max Chandler-Mather)

Queensland voters seen at a polling booth at Kallangur State School in Brisbane on Saturday

‘We are on track at least to see our highest statewide vote that we’ve ever achieved,’ he said.

‘You can take from that that the party is still growing.

He did not accept the meagre return from Saturday was a bad portent for the Greens’ prospects federally in Queensland.

‘You look at seats like Greenslopes, which is within Griffith and Miller, in the new target seat of Moreton, we saw really major swings to the Greens in those areas,’ he said.

‘I don’t think it’s a simple as suggesting we are in trouble federally because of anything we’ve seen today.

‘What we’ve seen is Labor has been able to claw back a lot of ground by stealing our policies.’

The Greens have not given up hope of retaining South Brisbane but paradoxically that turnaround is pinned on the LNP overtaking Labor.

If that happens then Labor’s preferences are likely to flow strongly towards the Greens, giving them a near miraculous come-from-behind victory.