Minor parties in minor role in Qld poll

Katter's Australian Party is the only minor party with members in the new look Queensland parliament.

Katter's Australian Party leader Bob Katter

Katter's Australian Party is the only minor party with members in the new Queensland parliament. (AAP)

There's only one minor party with a presence in Queensland's new parliament and for all his money and bluster, it's not Clive Palmer's.

The 2015 election was almost as bad for the minor parties as it was for the Liberal National Party.

Katter's Australian Party has managed to keep two of its three MPs, but Mr Palmer's lofty political aspirations failed to eventuate.

At one point in the lead-up to the election, the federal MP proclaimed his party was out to win government.

He told voters he'd stand candidates in all 89 seats, and take on his once beloved LNP to end its allegedly corrupt and damaging reign.

But that was before the only two MPs in his party jumped ship.

In the end, the federal MP's party fielded just 50 candidates and managed just five per cent of the vote.

And its star candidate, John Bjelke-Petersen, fell dismally short in his efforts to unseat Mr Palmer's arch enemy, Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney.

As for that other federal political brand that's so often reached into Queensland, well she did better than expected.

Pauline Hanson's bid to win the seat of Lockyer, west of Brisbane, wasn't the complete disaster some had predicted. She managed a respectable second. At last count she was trailing the LNP's Ian Rickuss 46 per cent to his 53, after preferences.

Perhaps the real surprise in terms of under performance was the Greens.

They ran a strong campaign, primarily hung off threats to the future of the Great Barrier Reef, but despite that the swing towards the party was just 1.1 per cent.

They were never going to win a seat in the Queensland parliament, but Greens MPs had been hoping the focus on the reef would translate into a bigger jump in support.

Still, the Greens can rest content in the knowledge their preferences helped defeat the LNP.

As for the three independents who were recontesting their seats, only one has survived, with Peter Wellington living to serve another term in Nicklin.

But Alex Douglas and Carl Judge - the two former LNP MPs, who jumped ship to the Palmer party only to abandon it to become independents in the run up to this year's poll - well they're looking for new income streams.


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