Qld Labor minister plays down Greens risk

A Queensland Labor minister insists his party shouldn't be worried about a political threat from the Greens after the minor left-wing party claimed a seat on Brisbane's council.

Jonathan Sri will be sworn in as Queensland's first Greens councillor after Labor conceded defeat in Brisbane City Council's The Gabba ward.

It prompted former Labor state secretary Anthony Chisholm to warn that the Queensland Greens would be emboldened by their local government success and push harder to be elected in other tiers of government.

"They won't just be focusing on council; they will be planning their attacks on state and federal seats held by the Labor party," Mr Chisholm wrote in a column for The Courier-Mail on Thursday.

Mr Chisholm, now a federal Labor Senate candidate, said the Greens would threaten seats his party needed to win majority government and it would be challenging to fight a campaign on two fronts, given the ongoing battle with the Liberal National Party.

"The party can't afford to cede any more ground to the Greens in Queensland, but we must remain up for the fight of winning seats off the LNP," he said.

"This job has just become harder."

But Environment Minister Steve Miles on Thursday played down the threat.

"I'm all about winning more votes for Labor by governing better and implementing good Labor policies," Dr Miles said.

"I think we need to be less focused on the Greens and Greens' preferences ... and more focused on doing good work."

The Greens have targeted Dr Miles' seat of Mount Coot-tha in the past two state elections and managed to secure 22.2 per cent of the electorate's primary vote last year.

Dr Miles said his record in office would be enough to hold off their challenge.

Mr Sri earlier this week said his win demonstrated "a strong appetite for positive social change".

"Despite a tiny campaign budget, strong opposing candidates and every political commentator in Queensland saying it was next to impossible that we could achieve the necessary swing, we've actually done it," he posted on Facebook.

Labor lost two seats at Brisbane's local government election - one to the Greens and one to the LNP - leaving it with just five wards from 26.