Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has held his Queensland seat of Griffith despite a four percent swing against him and a nine per cent swing against Labor across the state.
Queensland voters appeared to have reversed 2007's "Ruddslide" with an avalanche of support for the Liberal National Party.
With around two-thirds of the vote counted in the federal election, Queenslanders had turned away from Labor with a statewide swing of 9.5 per cent against the governing party.
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The LNP - contesting a federal election for the first time as a merged party - benefited from a swing of three per cent, while the Greens received a 5.3 per cent swing and looked almost certain to pick up their first Queensland senator in Larissa Waters.
On a two-party preferred basis, the LNP secured 54.5 per cent with Labor on 45.5 per cent.
At 9.30pm (AEST) the LNP was likely to hold 14 seats: Maranoa, Groom, Moncrieff, Wide Bay, Dickson, Fadden, Hinkler, McPherson, Bowman, Wright, Ryan, Fairfax, Fisher and Leichhardt.
Labor looked set to hold Griffith, Oxley, Rankin, Capricornia, Blair and Bonner, and independent Bob Katter claimed victory in the north Queensland stronghold of Kennedy.
There were still nine seats too close to call.
Former Queensland premier Peter Beattie said he did not believe the change of leadership from Queenslander Kevin Rudd to Julia Gillard had been a factor in the swing against Labor.
"If there had not been a change of leadership Tony Abbott would be prime minister today," Mr Beattie told the Seven Network.
LNP MP Andrew Laming, who claimed victory in the seat of Bowman, said anger over the record of the Bligh Labor government in Queensland was a key factor.
"(Premier) Anna Bligh is pretty toxic in Queensland, and people will vote at any level of government to try to have her removed in Queensland," he said.
Mr Rudd told supporters at a post-election party he was proud of how Labor members had campaigned across the country.
"You are the standard bearers of our movement ... who stood in the line of battle and have seen members fall and seen candidates do it tough," he said.
"I say to every one of them that they do our movement proud and let us stand by them."
Mr Beattie, who led a minority government in Queensland in 1998 with the support of independent MP Peter Wellington, said such governments could work.
"You can work with them, you can work with the Greens," he said.
"I can't see why a minority government can't work, and frankly sometimes they are good governments."
