Liberal National MP Warren Entsch is on his way back to Canberra.
Mr Entsch took the seat of Leichhardt back from Labor's Jim Turnour with a swing of almost 10 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.
Mr Entsch, who stood aside from politics in 2007, said what gave him the greatest satisfaction was the support he was receiving from remote indigenous communities.
"To me that is very very special," he told ABC Television.
"What has happened in the last two and a half years is that our incumbent, and I see it around the country, has forgotten that politics is about people, it is not about parties."
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Mr Entsch said the wild rivers campaign, championed by the Wilderness Society and state government and designed to lock away north Queensland rivers, had helped his victory.
"The Aboriginal people in Cape York have for decades been trying to recover the country, trying to regain some of their homeland," he said.
"They have now got that homeland and the Wilderness Society is saying that they don't have the capacity to look after it."
