LIVE: Queensland State Election Results Blog

Welcome to the blog. All times are in Queensland time. Please refresh regularly to see updates.

5:30 Welcome - polls close in half an hour. Labor headed for a wipeout.
5:34 Sky News Exit Polls ALP 26% - LNP 55%
5:35 Labor likely to lose 44 seats swing of around 15%
5:39 View my view on Labor's dirty tricks today
5:44 KAP Nanango Candidate Carl Rackemann claims the party will ''surprise everyone'' and the result won't be what ''newspapers are telling everyone''
6:00 Polls close. Now for the results!
6:01 While we wait for the results, take a look at my predictions
6:04 Clive Palmer: ''What you'll see tonight is the Labor Party down below five seats. They'll be lucky if there's five''
6:05 Bob Katter: 'We have 3,000 members. That rivals the major parties' The Liberal Party has 70,000 members
6:07 Bob Katter claims he is the ''alternative'' of the free market parties
6:09 Bob Katter who claimed his party would be the government of Queensland now admits he will lose
6:17 First results come in for Dalrymple: Katters Party 4 votes, LNP 2, Greens 1, Ind 1, ALP 0
6:20 Whitsunday early results come in LNP 57, ALP 23, KAP 23, GRN 14
6:23 Second place will be incredibly close between ALP and Katter's Party, say early results
6:26 Brisbane Central looking good for LNP 131 v ALP 76
6:29 Early results in Nanango - Deb Frecklington fending of Carl Rackemann from KAP
6:31 In Nicklin left-leaning Independent MP Peter Wellington is trailing
6:40 Anna Bligh behind in South Brisbane
6:42 Independent Chris Foley behind in his very safe seat of Maryborough
6:45 In the fifth-safest Labor seat of Mackay, Labor are behind
6:48 Current swing against Labor of 21%
6:53 Campbell Newman leading in Ashgrove
7:05 17% swing against ALP with 8% counted. LNP +7%. KAP 13.8%
7:07 Deputy Premier likely to lose seat of Mount Coot-tha
7:10 Robbie Katter wins Mount Isa.
7:27 Overwhelming victory for LNP. Labor left with 2 confirmed seats.
7:31 LNP defector and Katter's Australian Party state leader Aidan McLindon loses seat of Beaudesert to LNP
7:41 LNP just ahead in very safe Labor seat of Mackay
7:43 LNP ahead by 80 votes in Anna Bligh's vote of South Brisbane
7:47 Anna Bligh back in the lead in South Brisbane
8:15 Anna Bligh conceding defeat
8:16 Anna Bligh thanks ''Queenslanders'', MP's and Andrew Fraser (Deputy Premier)
8:23 Bligh praises asset sales saying they saved jobs
8:24 Bligh thanks family - husband, sons, mother, extended family
8:42 Campbell Newman arrives at LNP Victory Party
8:46 Newman ''I want to thank all Queenslanders for voting for change -  I want to thank the people of Ashgrove for voting for change''
8:48 Newman: Thank you for your trust. We will keep our promises. You have spoken decisively.
8:49 Newman: We don't underestimate the task ahead. The job starts tomorrow morning.
8:51 Newman acknowledges and thanks Bligh for service particularly during floods.
8:52 Newman thanks colleagues
8:52 Newman kisses wife Lisa and thanks family
8:54 Newman delivers an outstanding and gracious speech

Thanks for reading my election blog on a historic night. Labor will likely not have party status in the Parliament. The LNP will have 75+ seats. Katter's State Leader Aidan McLindon has lost his seat.
One interesting thing tonight has been the swing of 1% against the Greens. No doubt because of it's influence federally. Several Independent MP's suffer major swings.

Party vote statewide at 9:00:
LNP 48.96
Labor 23.84
KAP 14.75
Greens 7.19

Labor's desperate dirty tricks

Labor has been ordered by the Supreme Court to stop handing out the above unauthorised how-to-vote card, while the ALP Candidate for Glass House Ryan Moore is making allegations against LNP volunteers accusing one of punching someone and others of refusing to shake his hand - prompting one of his supporters to allege it was due to homophobia.
Meanwhile an ALP supporter has reportedly threatened a reporter with a camera after they tried to take a photo of the below ''fake-Greens'' how-to-vote cards:



Don't miss my live election blog on the results this evening.

Andrew Clennell v Barry O'Farrell

Andrew Clennell, State Political Reporter for the Daily Telegraph seems unable to accept there is no money left in NSW - the State Budget is $718 million in the red.
Despite this, he continues to call for major infrastructure spending, without any thought or planning.

Clennell also seems to think he is the defacto Opposition Leader of NSW - he has previously written an article in which he claimed funding had been ''cut'' from a free glasses programme when in fact, the money allocated to the programme had run out, as the article actually admits.
In addition, Clennell been running a ferocious and factually inaccurate campaign against the NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith. He even later admitted it wasn't even his idea to write one critical article about the Attorney-General - it was Labor Leader John Robertson's. In one article he wrote ''In a decision which has angered police, the presumption against bail for serious offences ... would also be removed under the proposals''
The only problem with that article was the fact there had been no 'decision'. The 'decision' was a review, done by the Law Reform Commission, which still hasn't gone to the Minister.

Labor headed for wipeout in Queensland

Queensland voters are today set to deliver an LNP government, ending 20 years of Labor.

My predictions for today:

• LNP win. (That's a no-brainer)
• Labor likely to have around 10-15 seats.
• Katter's Party will likely win Mt Isa. Possibly Nanango Both will be extremely close. Dalrymple, held by LNP defector Shane Knuth will be close. KAP state leader Aidan McLindon, another LNP defector will have a fight on his hands.
• Peter Wellington Independent MP for Nicklin will likely lose, but it will be very close
• Rob Messenger, LNP defector running as an Independent will likely lose
• Campbell Newman will easily win Ashgrove
• Anna Bligh will also have a contest on her hands in South Brisbane
• Treasurer & Deputy Premier will likely lose his seat of Mt Coot-tha

Labor up to dirty tricks in a desperate attempt to save seats, with David Moore reporting on Twitter that Labor volunteers are handing out unregistered how to vote cards, while the Courier Mail is reporting Labor are hanging elections signs illegally on bus stop signs:

Government Finally Get Something Right

The Federal Labor Government have finally made the right call on an issue, with Senator Jacinta Collins revealing in Parliament the government will make Diamond Jubilee portraits of Her Majesty The Queen available to community groups and organisations.

Unfortunately, Senator Bob Brown could not help mocking the proposal

Bligh's defamation of Newman fails

After Anna Bligh and Labor's savage personal attacks on Campbell Newman, his family and personal interests have failed to stop the wave of support for the LNP. A poll for the Courier-Mail has found Mr Newman will defeat Labor's Kate Jones tomorrow.

Bumbling Blogger Bob's latest gaffe

Bumbling Blogger Bob our Foreign Minister has suffered from a remarkable number of gaffes since becoming Foreign Minister. Now, Senator Carr has told ABC TV he had passed on his condolences to the parents of an orphaned Brazilian student who died in Sydney after being tasered. As Julie Bishop, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs has said, Carr needs to get on top of his brief before going out and making stupid comments.
Labor's dream could be turning into a nightmare.

Carr Admits he was wrong. Again.

New Foreign Minister Bob Carr has admitted he was wrong to threaten sanctions against Papua New Guinea. This comes after he claimed his comments were taken ''out of context'' Here is the full quote of what he said:
"You've got Australia placed in a position where we'd have no alternative but to organise the world to condemn and isolate Papua New Guinea. We'd be in a position of having to consider sanctions''

Of course, Carr recently repudiated many of his own views on Foreign Policy that he had written on his blog.

Bob Carr is turning out to be a very clumsy Foreign Minister despite being praised as the right choice by commentators such as David Penberthy, Dennis Shanahan, Alan Jones, Greg Sheridan and of course Fairfax commentators.

The Left v Free Spech Mark II

Left-wing activist group GetUp has offered financial backing to anti-coal protester Drew Hutton after Mr Hutton announced he is considering taking Clive Palmer to court. Ironically, Clive Palmer had earlier suggested a left-wing group may fund the defamation case against him.
Sadly, this is the latest major threat to freedom of speech in our country after Andrew Bolt was found guilty of breaching the Racial Discrimination Act and ordered to apologise. Interestingly, both cases come from cashed up left-wing activists.
We know from several recent high-profile court cases that due to the culture of judicial activism, the left have far too much influence over our justice system.

Ian Verrender's Model Countries

Ian Verrender today writing in The Age defended the Federal Government's attack on mining today by claiming Australia is a ''tax haven'' for miners. He justified the introduction of a mining tax by pointing out all new mining exploration in Namibia will be state owned. He also pointed out in that in Zimbabwe the insane dictator Robert Mugabe is bringing in new draconian measures to curb wealth generation for his starving nation. Another one if Ian's model countries is global scam-haven Nigeria.

So, Ian, is this all part of a scheme to nationalize mining?

Follow the link to see the other countries he wants Australia to be more like: here

Labor wasting billions on consultants

It has been revealed today that since Labor came to office in late 2007, the Government have spent $2,170,180,096 on 17,736 consultantancy contracts. The Health budget is being eaten into by a massive $208 million spent on consultants. The Canberra Times reported that ''However, the contracts also encroach into areas that were traditionally the responsibility of public servants, such as policy advice and contract administration''.
With both sides needing to look for spending cuts, this would be an ideal area.

Ross Gittins Calls for MORE Tax

Socialist Morning Herald columnist Ross Gittins last week called for ''raised taxes'' and ''bigger government''. Gittins, a well-know Socialist is the ''Economics Editor'' of the SMH. What a shame his economic ideology is stuck in the 1950's. Gittins claims ''Our preoccupation with limiting overall government spending and taxation means crowding out spending on public services. We've squeezed spending on education - particularly at the tertiary level - which is an investment in the human capital of our future workforce. We've neglected investment in physical infrastructure and environmental protection'' How he can say this when we spend nearly $23 billion on education, $13 billon on infrastructure and $96 billion on ''general services''. In total, the federal government spent nearly $400 billion in 2011-2012 alone, excluding the NBN. We need to spend less, not more. We need to reduce taxes, not raise them.

''Equal Love'' Attention Seekers

Equal Love Brisbane have accused the media of ''homophobia'' for allegedly not allowing their group access to a Ashgrove candidates forum. But, the Westside News has revelead the group was directly invited to the attend the forum, but declined.
What a bunch of attention-seeking morons.

Now That's Desperate....

Katter's Australian Party candidate for Condamine, John Mathison is getting desperate in the lead up to polling day. The candidate for the Very Safe LNP held seat is encouraging, yes encouraging people to vandalise his election signs. Mr Mathison has placed an advertisement in a local newspaper calling on people to dress his head to win an autographed hat from Bob Katter.

Well.....it's creative.