The coalition is hopeful of holding onto the north Queensland seat of Herbert as vote counting continues.
Liberal National Party MP Ewen Jones is picking up just over 58 per cent of the postal votes in the seat centred on Townsville.
Mr Jones narrowed the gap with his Labor rival Cathy O'Toole to 694 votes on the most recent figures, with 6500 postal votes still to be counted.
"I'm in this fight - it is eminently do-able," Mr Jones told AAP on Wednesday.
"We could be up by 500 with postals, with absentees to go."
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The LNP ran an extensive postal vote campaign, processing around 6500 applications.
Mr Jones said the region's 13 per cent unemployment rate, the slowdown in the mining and construction sectors and the closure of Queensland Nickel led to voters looking for someone to blame.
"While I put forward a positive campaign talking about 2018 to 2030, other people were talking about July," he said.
"When people are hurting, someone is going to get belted."
He said One Nation and other Right-leaning minor parties had swapped preferences.
Coalition strategists had suggested Mr Jones attend rallies and engage more closely with parties like One Nation and Rise Up Australia.
"But I can't do it. If you have to dance with the devil ... there are times you have to stand up," he said.
"The thing I was most proud of is Malcolm (Turnbull) was out there saying: `We have to be bold and brave, the future is here, let's run with it'.
"Pauline Hanson was saying: `Come here, it's nice and warm in this cave'."
Mr Jones said the key to the next government would be for the coalition to work with Labor on economic reform, as occurred in the 1980s, and sideline minor parties which had no solutions.
"The crossbench in the Senate and House is immaterial if we can get that sort of accord that Hawke, Keating and Howard achieved."
