LABOR’S WEEK TO FORGET
Government came here hoping to sell a positive story to voters but instead managed to generate negative publicity
WINNING elections is about good storytelling.
If voters read or hear something enough times, they feel safe at home and secure at work. In that sense, Labor has had a horror Gold Coast holiday week.
As Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk visited the light rail stage two works at Helensvale railway station on Monday, her straight-shooting Maryborough MP Bruce Saunders was at his regular radio talkback session in sleepy Hervey Bay. The Labor backbencher talked about transport arrangements for the Commonwealth Games being a “debacle” and said the frenzied preparations were causing ministers to tear their hair out.
The next morning, State Development Minister Dr Anthony Lynham visited a Burleigh manufacturing plant to announce a funding grant. He was asked about the backbencher.
Dr Lynham was asked to give a timeline for an announcement on approval for the $3 billion ASF project at The Spit. He could not but by midday the $3 billion project was dead in the water.
The storylines which followed were about the loss of jobs and political opportunism, that Labor is gambling that getting the green vote will help win several Coast seats.
Certainly they will pick up some votes. Professional retirees at Main Beach campaigning against ASF were prepared to vote for the first time for One Nation, which opposed the project.
So Labor might win the new marginal seat of Bonney in downtown Labrador, have a better chance of beating the LNP in Gaven and Southport and Deputy Premier Jackie Trad, who needs Green preferences, will feel more comfortable in her marginal South Brisbane seat.
Back on the Glitter Strip the honeymoon appeared a bit brighter with Housing Minister Mick de Brenni talking about being with homeless support groups and Families Minister Shannon Fentiman fronting Southport Courthouse with the domestic violence police taskforce.
These are traditional strong Labor storylines about caring for the disadvantaged.
But where was the announcement of a new project to replace the hotel-casino resort? What about M1 upgrades, some new schools or more police on the beat?
Even when Labor gets something to celebrate like the walk through of a new Commonwealth Games venue, good news images can turn to bad.
Early last month the Premier visited Carrara, played table tennis with GOLDOC chair Peter Beattie as event organisers scheduled a media conference to talk up ticket sales.
But the Government had just released details of its antiterror strategy.
Mr Beattie cleverly deferred all questions on terror to the Premier. The nightly news bulletins featured shots of RAAF planes flying overhead. You could hear the groan from GOLDOC.
Can Labor get its Coast story right, sniff out what’s really going on at Labrador?
“People are still worried about crime. The general feeling out there is being very cautious after dark,” a community worker told your columnist.
“It’s about whether I will get towelled up, will I get a belting. The Premier is out of touch with the streets.”
Yes, this is just one view but it’s a recurring one. The Opposition MPs here just happen to repeat it each night in grabs for the television news.
Safe at home, secure at work. Labor must sell that story to be here at the Games party next April.