Shayne Neumann Says Labor Needed Rudd's Popularity Queensland Labor MP Shayne Neumann in the House of Representatives. A Queensland Labor MP has told how he believes his switch of leadership allegiance will help save his party at the next election. Member for Blair Shayne Neumann stood alongside Bill Shorten when the influential former Workplace Relations minister announced he was throwing his weight behind reinstalled Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. In 2007, Mr Neumann won the seat of Blair, which rings Ipswich from Collingwood Park through Springfield Central and out to Kilcoy, on the back of a 10-per-cent swing to Labor under the "Kevin 07" leadership drive. The parliamentary secretary for Health and Ageing on Thursday described himself as "emblematic of the pragmatists, the moderates and the realists" on Labor's backbench. "Elections are won and lost in the rugby league states, Queensland and New South Wales," Mr Neumann said. That's a truism. The Labor Party needs to win seats in Queensland. Kevin can help us win seats in Queensland. Labor holds eight of the 30 seats in Queensland - seven of them marginal. Blair is held by Labor with a 4.2 per cent margin. Mr Neumann is banking on the return of Mr Rudd's 2007 election appeal. "We saw that in 2007 when he won nine seats in Queensland, we won seven seats in New South Wales and that is why we won the election," he said. Against the toughest, wiliest, most respected conservative prime minister since Robert Menzies, John Howard. In July 2012, Julia Gillard was warmly received when she appeared at a Community Cabinet in Redbank Plains. "I like her personally, but I made the call," Mr Neumann said. It was a really tough decision because I thought it was in the best interests of our state and of the people in my electorate. In contrast, Petrie MP Yvette D'Ath maintained her support for Ms Gillard in last night's caucus vote. Despite a margin of just 2.1 per cent, Ms D'Ath did not feel the pressure to switch, a spokesman said this morning. "Because her position was so well known and so clear, she was not really the subject of much lobbying," the spokesman said. There is no doubt that Kevin is a very popular figure and certainly in Queensland. And she hopes he can make an important difference in the campaign in Queensland. Meanwhile LNP candidates in the seats of Griffith, held by Mr Rudd; Rankin held by retiring MP Craig Emerson and Lilley, held by Wayne Swan, all said the election would be tough. Earlier this month Fairfax reported that senior party figures said Labor could win just one seat - Kevin Rudd's Griffith - in the worst-case scenario for Labor in Queensland. In the best case scenario, Labor could hold just four of the eight it holds today - Griffith, Rankin and Oxley on Brisbane's western fringe and Blair, held by Mr Neumann.