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Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm kristin amiot.

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Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, October one. Protesters who carried flags bearing the

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Speaker 1: emblem of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah and its slain

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Speaker 1: leader Hassan Nasrallah could evade prosecution. The Australian Federal Police

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Speaker 1: say new laws might be a get out of jail

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Speaker 1: free card for supporters. President Jose Ramos Horter says he'll

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Speaker 1: turn to China or Kuwait for support if Australia doesn't

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Speaker 1: back his government's vision for oil and gas fields in

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Speaker 1: East t Moor. That exclusive story is live right now

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Speaker 1: at the Australian dot Com dot a U. Queensland Premier

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Speaker 1: Stephen Miles will formally call a state election today, kicking

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Speaker 1: off a campaign that's sure to draw out Queensland's unique

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Speaker 1: political character. In today's episode, why Nowhere does politics like

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Speaker 1: the Sunshine State.

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Speaker 2: John, I will talk to you then if you like,

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Speaker 2: but you'll pay me a lot of money for it.

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Speaker 3: Are you senophobic?

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Speaker 4: Please explain. Let there be a thousand blossoms ballot as

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Speaker 4: far as often so.

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Speaker 3: But I ain't spending any time warrant because.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, when it comes to politicians, Queensland likes

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Speaker 1: some colorful.

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Speaker 3: Well maybe I know nothing about politics, but is just

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Speaker 3: getting you votes. I am a Martian astronaut.

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Speaker 1: And when it comes to politics in the Sunshine State,

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Speaker 1: there's never a dull moment.

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Speaker 3: There's an election on in Flanders and I know who

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Speaker 3: I walk back. It's a hard working man called Kata

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Speaker 3: helps anyone on the track.

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Speaker 1: If, as the BBC once suggested, Australian politics is like

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Speaker 1: a sitcom directed by Quentin Tarantino, then Queensland politics is

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Speaker 1: the spin off. It can be amusing, sure, but it's

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Speaker 1: also fiery, poignant and compelling.

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Speaker 4: You're right, it's a hard fought political theater in Queensland.

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Speaker 1: Michael McKenna is the Australian Queensland Editor.

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Speaker 4: It's always thrown up colorful characters. The politics is fought

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Speaker 4: really hard and there's a divergence of interests and pressures.

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Speaker 4: Part of that is a function of the fact that

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Speaker 4: Queensland is a decentralized state, so there's often a conflict

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Speaker 4: between the needs of those in the regions and those

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Speaker 4: in the city, and they're exploited by the various parties.

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Speaker 1: And who are some of those colorful characters that you

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Speaker 1: mentioned who've defined Queensland's political landscape over the past few decades.

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Speaker 4: In your you can't get past to Djoebajocki Peterson, who

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Speaker 4: was the longest serving Queensland Premier. He lost office in

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Speaker 4: nineteen eighty nine after the Fitzgerald Inquiry into corruption, which

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Speaker 4: looked at the systemic corruption in the Queensland Police Service

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Speaker 4: and also into parts of government. And from there we've

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Speaker 4: got other characters like more recently Pauline Hansen had Clide Palmer,

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Speaker 4: and then you've got the media tart Peter Beatty from

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Speaker 4: the Labor Party who was known for his populist ways

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Speaker 4: and his availability to the media. So yeah, there's just

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Speaker 4: been a long history of colorful characters.

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Speaker 1: On October twenty six, Queensland as will go to the

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Speaker 1: polls to select a new state government or keep the

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Speaker 1: one they already have.

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Speaker 4: One of the things that people don't really know about

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Speaker 4: Queensland is that voters for the State Parliament don't change

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Speaker 4: the color of the government that often. Since federation, we've

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Speaker 4: only had seven chains in the political stripes of the government.

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Speaker 4: In twenty twelve, there was a huge swing a record

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Speaker 4: victory to the then Liberal National Party led by Campbell

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Speaker 4: Newman with an absolute smashing majority. But interestingly he was

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Speaker 4: a pugnacious premier and quite divisive. He then lost that

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Speaker 4: huge majority in just one term. Queenslanders don't, from records,

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Speaker 4: like to change government very often.

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Speaker 1: Labor has been in power for almost a decade in

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Speaker 1: the Sunshine State, but a series of fumbles over key

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Speaker 1: issues like youth crime, the cost of living crisis and

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Speaker 1: a monumentally flawed forensic testing system means a big swing

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Speaker 1: could be on the cards.

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Speaker 4: Successive polls for about eighteen months or two years have

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Speaker 4: sean that the ll and P, led by data Chrisofully,

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Speaker 4: is ascendant in the polls. Our most recent poll showed

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Speaker 4: that the l ANDP is on a two party basis

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Speaker 4: of fifty five percent to Labour's forty five percent. So

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Speaker 4: in the single chamber parliament that we have, that would

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Speaker 4: probably result in the loss of twenty seats to the LNP,

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Speaker 4: and I think a lot of it comes down that

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Speaker 4: there's a really strong mood for change in the state.

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Speaker 4: The Labor Party has held government in Queensland since twenty

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Speaker 4: fifteen under Anastasia Palachet. There hasn't been a lot of

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Speaker 4: huge wins, although some of their progressive social issues like

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Speaker 4: decriminalizing abortion and bringing euthanasia have been big wins for them.

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Speaker 4: But it's been a meandering government.

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Speaker 1: So as a federal election looms, should Anthony Albanesi be worried?

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Speaker 4: I think there'll be some lessons for the Federal Labor government.

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Speaker 4: It's going to be a real test on the Labor

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Speaker 4: brand from Queensland extrapolated across Australia. But what we've seen

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Speaker 4: since December is that even though she's been moved on

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Speaker 4: as new Premier in Stephen Miles, the polls show that

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Speaker 4: support for the Labor brand has stagnated. And of course

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Speaker 4: Federal Labor Anthony Albanezi needs to do well in Queensland

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Speaker 4: and the next federal election. The Federal Labor Party has

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Speaker 4: one of the smallest representations of any government that's held

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Speaker 4: the Key to the Lodge since Federation. In Queensland there's

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Speaker 4: only five of the thirty Queensland Federal seats that's held

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Speaker 4: by Labor, so they're desperate to pick up seats in

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Speaker 4: Queensland and if there's a drobbing at the state election,

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Speaker 4: it will have Federal Labor concerned to say the least.

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Speaker 1: Coming up, Stephen Miles and David chris A fully hit

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Speaker 1: the campaign trail. Subscribers to The Australian Here all things

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Speaker 1: Queensland election first, to check us out at the Australian

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Speaker 1: dot com dot au and we'll be back after the break.

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Speaker 1: These days, where campaign trails go, memes follow, or maybe

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Speaker 1: it's the other way around. On this side of the house,

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Speaker 1: we will always stand up for a woman's right to choose.

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Speaker 1: That's very demure, very mindful. This is Queensland Premier Stephen Miles.

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Speaker 1: He's tapped into the meme of the moment to spread

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Speaker 1: the word about one of Queensland Labour's big election promises.

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Speaker 4: I am concerned about what those opposite will do to

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Speaker 4: queensland Women's right to choose if the government changes in October.

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Speaker 1: It's part of a broader scare campaign designed to win

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Speaker 1: back favor among voters. But the thing is the promised

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Speaker 1: abortion supports services have yet to see the light of

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Speaker 1: day seven months after they were announced. Sources told The

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Speaker 1: Australians Queensland editor Michael McKenna and political reporter Lydia Lynch

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Speaker 1: that Labor leaders were waiting until this week to announce

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Speaker 1: the almost ten million dollar program. That may be too little,

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Speaker 1: too late in the context of a campaign that's already

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Speaker 1: under considerable pressure. Here's Michael McKenna, and.

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Speaker 4: Side has said hope that a change in leadership would

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Speaker 4: improve their electoral chances. And from what we've seen, certainly

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Speaker 4: in our news poll since the leadership change, is that

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Speaker 4: it hasn't made much difference. He's given it a red

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Speaker 4: hot go and it'd be really interesting in the election

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Speaker 4: because he's not natural on the stump. He often appears nervous,

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Speaker 4: he stutters through his answers. But I think he's improved

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Speaker 4: since he's become premier, and he's really tried to remove

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Speaker 4: some of the barnacles of the sinking ship. Since he's

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Speaker 4: taken the leadership, he's taken tougher action on youth crime,

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Speaker 4: he's changed the bar and he's thrown out some fairly

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Speaker 4: populist cost of living measures and spent three point seven

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Speaker 4: billion dollars on things like the thousand dollars electricity rebate.

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Speaker 4: But the fact is that even though some of his

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Speaker 4: personal popularity ratings have edged up ever so slightly, the

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Speaker 4: base vote for labor has stayed in the doldrums, but

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Speaker 4: as I said, he's invigorated and he's given it a

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Speaker 4: red hot go.

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Speaker 1: Elsewhere on social media, Stephen Miles opponent Liberal National Party

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Speaker 1: leader David Chrisifuley is making yoki.

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Speaker 4: I've shown you for my secret recipe for my spaghetti sauce,

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Speaker 4: and then we will add the biochis to a positive

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Speaker 4: comes to the boil.

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Speaker 1: Like Myles, CHRISI. Fooley has never led a state election campaign.

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Speaker 1: This is the first time in more than three decades

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Speaker 1: that's happened, and it's shaping up to be the first

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Speaker 1: real test of the charismatic opposition leaders premiershiptential In the.

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Speaker 4: Last thirty five years, the Conservative Parties have been in

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Speaker 4: power just five of those thirty five years, and the

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Speaker 4: party has been riven with personal animosities and factionalism and

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Speaker 4: so forth. So chris Ipooly has been able to unify

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Speaker 4: the party and bring some discipline. He's got a long

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Speaker 4: history in politics, although he often tries to characterize himself

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Speaker 4: as an anti politician, a farmer who grew up I'm

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Speaker 4: a cane farm and then he was a journalist. But

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Speaker 4: he didn't spend much time in journalism. He won a

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Speaker 4: seat in twenty twelve with Campbell Newman leading the party

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Speaker 4: and then he was quickly made the local government minister.

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Speaker 4: But as he describes himself, he was a man in

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Speaker 4: a hurry. He rushed things, he wasn't prone to consultation

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Speaker 4: and he ultimately lost his seat in twenty fifteen along

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Speaker 4: with the government. And what he's been doing in the

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Speaker 4: last couple of years is really keeping to a narrow

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Speaker 4: focus on what he wants to talk about are often

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Speaker 4: the failings of the Labor government, and that has been effective.

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Speaker 4: But this campaign is going to be a real test

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Speaker 4: for this small target strategy. He's going to be on

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Speaker 4: the stump every day and this is the first time

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Speaker 4: that we're going to see David Christofooley under day to

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Speaker 4: day's scrutiny and we'll see how he copes with that.

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Speaker 4: In Queensland, you can never tell.

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Speaker 1: Michael McKenna is The Australian's Queensland Editor. You can follow

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Speaker 1: his team's reporting and analysis of the run up to

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Speaker 1: the Queensland election at the Australian dot com dot au