LNP is furious at Last place

BURDEKIN MP Dale Last has accused One Nation’s Sam Cox of selling out farmers by putting Labor ahead of the LNP at the November 25 state poll.

Mr Last said he was “shocked” that Mr Cox would preference Labor over the LNP, which would be placed second- last – one rung above the Greens – on One Nation’s how- to- vote card.

Mr Last said by asking voters to put Labor ahead of the LNP, Mr Cox was making “a clear statement” he was against coal- fired baseload power stations.

He said it showed Mr Cox was opposed to the Adani coal mine and that he was in favour of Labor’s proposed restrictive vegetation management laws.

He said it also showed Mr Cox was sympathetic to Labor’s plan to repeal the sugar marketing legislation, which gives farmers the right to choose how their sugar is sold.

Mr Cox said Mr Last was a Liberal and that the National Party component of the LNP had been “left behind and forgotten”.

“He is saying I’m ‘ Labor lite’, but that’s not true,” Mr Cox said. “Mr Last should go and ask sugarcane farmers who was responsible for the sugar industry code of conduct. It wasn’t the Liberals.

“And it was Pauline Hanson who played a major role in the Federal Government’s support this year for a sugar industry mandatory code of conduct.”

He said people knew One Nation stood for agriculture and mining.

He said Mr Last was a Liberal in ideology and was not a National Party supporter.

“Dale Last knows his party is run by the Brisbane Liberals. The National Party is gone. He is Liberal,” Mr Cox said.

He said the LNP would privatise a base- load power station, which would drive electricity costs to even higher levels.

“One Nation will keep a base- load power station in government hands so that prices can be kept down,” Mr Cox said.

Labor candidate Mike Brunker said the race for Burdekin was “tight” and that there was “not a lot of daylight” between the candidates.

“I’m about neck and neck with Dale Last, but it’s all very close,” he said.

Mr Brunker said he had “taken a hit” when Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced her government would veto a Federal Government concessional loan to Adani of $ 1 billion under the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.

He said he felt the “dust had settled” on the issue and that people knew the Adani coal mining project was proceeding “full steam ahead”.

“I think people realise it’s a federal loan anyway and that the state doesn’t have a lot to do with it,” he said.

Mr Last was campaigning in the Galilee Basin coal towns this week. He said he had campaigned at the Moranbah pre- polling booth yesterday and that he had “doorknocked every house” in Burdekin’s southernmost town, Middlemount, at the weekend.

“The response is good. People are appreciating the fact that I’m out there doing my job,” he said.

Mr Cox said he expected Burdekin to be one of the most closely contested seats in the state.

“I’d be very surprised if they announced a winner on polling night,” he said.

The Greens candidate for Burdekin Matthew Bing did not respond when invited to comment yesterday.