Federal election in Bowman was a state battle, says Andrew Laming

Mr Laming said the election had been fought on state issues against state Labor MPs Don Brown and Kim Richards, while federal candidate Tom Baster had been abandoned by the party.

"I expect Ms Richards and Mr Brown to say they had nothing to do with the campaign but there was no campaign apart from those two.

"This really was a test for them which they failed. Mr Baster was just a name, just a corflute."

With a relatively safe margin of 7.1 per cent ahead of the election, Mr Laming had been tipped to win.

Political scientist Paul Williams had said early in the campaign that it would be a big ask for Labor to win.

Mr Laming said the campaign issues had included roads and hospital funding.

"We weren't talking about immigration, defence, foreign affairs, tax," he said. "There was superannuation issues but this was a battle fought on state issues against state MPs."

Mr Laming said the results from polling centres in the Labor state seats showed that Ms Richards and Mr Brown had been unable to mobilise sufficient people or sympathy.

"That's very encouraging for us in the next state election," he said.

Mr Laming said the results reflected a lack of resources and union investment in Labor's Bowman campaign.

Mr Brown said that Mr Laming was re-writing the result to progress the narrative into the state election.

"The federal election was fought on federal issues," he said.

"Andrew Laming's not giving voters the credit they deserve to determine between a federal election and a state election.

"People understand the difference between federal politics and state politics."

Mr Brown said Labor's national office did not target Bowman.

"Mr Laming had more than a $200,000 spending campaign," Mr Brown said. "We didn't."

"He had pork-barrelling promises, even late ones the week before the election day.

"Mr Laming also had the benefit of the assistance of a $60 million negative ad campaign from Clive Palmer which also helped his case.

"The LNP's scare campaign in regards to higher taxes cut through and people didn't take to Bill Shorten."

Candidate Tom Baster said Mr Laming was a tough campaigner.

Policy issues like franking credits and Mr Laming's long tenure in the seat had not helped him peg back Mr Laming's strong lead.

"He's got good name recognition," Mr Baster said.

Mr Baster said the proposed Toondah Harbour development was not a factor.

Thanking supporters, he predicted that Mr Laming's election promise of $30 million for the Redland Hospital would not be honoured.

Mr Laming said his promises were all budgeted and would have been delivered, whether he had been returned to Parliament or not.

Also read: Photos from the federal election in Bowman