ONE NATION CASTS SHADOW OVER LNP
THE spectre of a One Nation- controlled crossbench in the next parliament has continued to haunt LNP leader Tim Nicholls during a heated public debate last night.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was declared the winner with 60 per cent of the audience of undecided voters at the Sky News/ The Courier- Mail People’s Forum last night declaring they would vote for her after witnessing her debate Mr Nicholls and One Nation state leader Steve Dickson for more than an hour.
Mr Nicholls started strongly with an opening address pledging to make the state better. But he came under fire from the audience as he struggled to say whether he would accept the resurgent One Nation’s support to form government should he fail to secure a majority November 25 poll.
“Yes or no,” jeered the crowd as Mr Nicholls attempted to avoid directly stating his position on the issue. “We understand people are frustrated with the major parties,” he said.
“We’re not going to say the will of the people shouldn’t take place.
“We will deal with the parliament and the elected representatives that the people put forward.”
It comes amid a concerted campaign by Labor to paint Mr Nicholls and One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson as one and the same in the leadup to election day. And his position hurt with just 12 per cent of the voters declaring they would now support him.
Just 10 per cent sided with Mr Dickson while 18 per cent remained undecided as they left the forum last night. at the
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Ms Palaszczuk earned applause as she declared she would rather be in opposition than take supply from One Nation.
“Sometimes you have got to stand on your principles,” she said. “If that means going into opposition, we will go into opposition.”
Ms Palaszczuk was put on the spot over her decision to that she would exercise the State Government’s right to veto the loan.
ReachTEL asked more than 2100 Queenslanders whether they supported the veto decision. The poll, commissioned by The Australia Institute, found that 61.6 per cent of North Queenslanders would prefer the funds be directed to projects other than Adani.
Support for the loan was higher in North Queensland than in the southeast. veto Adani’s application for a taxpayer- funded federal loan through the Northern Ausustralia Infrastructure Faacility. She struggled to o articulate why she e took that step. Both major party leaders also struggled over how w they would bring ng down debt with neither guaranteeing they would stop the debt reachaching the $ 81 billion predicted icted by 2020- 21. Mr Nicholls said his pledge to create 500,000 jobs over the next decade would assist the Budget but again ruled out asset sales or public service cuts. Ms Palaszczuk said she had restored services after Newman government cuts. Mr Dickson spent most of the debate deriding the major parties as he pledged to bring down power prices and scrap the $ 5.4 billion Brisbane Cross River Rail project.