LABOR’S ADANI HEADACHE
THE LNP is confident the shock swing to the party on the Gold Coast will transfer to next year’s state election as the spotlight turns to Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and the Adani headache.
Opposition leader Deb Frecklington yesterday seized on the Coalition’s federal poll win to highlight Ms Palaszczuk’s “anti-jobs” agenda in failing to speed up approval of Adani’s coal mine.
“This election result for the LNP in Queensland is a direct result of the fact that Annastacia Palaszczuk is anti-regions, anti-resources and anti-jobs,” Ms Frecklington said.
Ms Palaszczuk rejected the claim that her government’s handling of the Adani project hurt Labor federally, having this month told the miner to go back to the drawing board over plans to protect an endangered finch.
“Every mining application in this state has to go through the relevant approvals,” she said.
On the Coast, Bonney MP Sam O’Connor – who won the new marginal seat in the last state poll – was buoyed by the federal result after the party picked up two Queensland seats, winning 23 of the 30 electorates.
“I think that trend sends a huge message across the state to Labor, particularly on the Gold Coast. There are swings in all our seats,” Mr O’Connor said.
“There was a seven per cent swing against Labor in Forde. And they threw everything at that. Even on busy polling booths like Arundel they would only have one Labor volunteer.
“In the safe parts of the city they didn’t have any volunteers at all.”
The swing against Labor was 7.11 per cent in Forde, 3.1 per cent in Fadden, 2.55 per cent in Moncrieff and 2.81 per cent in McPherson.
Stuart Robert in Fadden slightly improved his primary vote and Bert van Manen in Forde achieved a stunning 2.32 per cent increase. The primary vote for the LNP was down
6.38 per cent in Moncrieff and
4.75 per cent in McPherson.
One Nation by re-entering the contest took away Labor votes with Pauline Hanson’s party vote ranging from 3.7 per cent to 11.34 per cent.
THE MESSAGE THAT WE HAD, THE LEADER DID NOT CUT THROUGH
But Mr O’Connor said an analysis of some of the booths in his electorate which tend to favour Labor showed strong outcomes for the LNP.
On a two-party preferred basis, Mr O’Connor at the 2017 State poll gained 51.7 per cent of the vote, which makes his seat a target by Labor at the next election.
At a booth in Arundel where he polled 51 per cent, LNP MP Stuart Robert obtained 58.5 per cent of the vote on Saturday. Another nearby booth saw swings of 5 to 10 per cent to the LNP.
“I have a five-point jump at Biggera Waters. We have three to five per cent swing to the booths that make up Bonney,” Mr O’Connor said.
“Labrador was line ball. In what is traditionally a Labor area, we got 48 per cent of the vote. It’s pretty impressive no matter where we are because I have one of the most Labor supported areas in the city.
“It’s very encouraging to see people embracing the LNP across the board.”
Mr O’Connor was shocked that after the federal poll the most northerly federal seat for Labor was Lilley on the Brisbane’s northside.
“You can’t translate it too much (for a State poll) but it’s encouraging for the party. We’d get extraordinary results if we replicated that,” he said.
“We have a lot of work to do in the next 18 months just convincing people we should be in (government). At the end of the day, federally we have performed really well. But at a State level we’ve only realistically won one election in the last three decades in Queensland.”
Labor insiders, while concerned, are not spooked by the results despite knowing their only sitting MP on the Coast, Meaghan Scanlon in Gaven, has a marginal seat.
“The message we had, the leader did not cut through. We’ve got a better government, working hard. People on the Coast tend to vote differently in a State election,” a Labor source said.