Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm kristin amiot.
Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, October one. Protesters who carried flags bearing the
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Speaker 1: East t Moor. That exclusive story is live right now
Speaker 1: at the Australian dot Com dot a U. Queensland Premier
Speaker 1: Stephen Miles will formally call a state election today, kicking
Speaker 1: off a campaign that's sure to draw out Queensland's unique
Speaker 1: political character. In today's episode, why Nowhere does politics like
Speaker 1: the Sunshine.
Speaker 2: State, John, I will talk to you then if you like,
Speaker 2: but you'll pay me a lot of money for it.
Speaker 3: Are you senophobic?
Speaker 1: Please explain.
Speaker 4: Let there be a thousand blossoms ballot as far as
Speaker 4: often so.
Speaker 3: But I ain't spending any time warrant because in the meantime.
Speaker 1: When it comes to politicians, Queensland likes some colorful.
Speaker 3: Well maybe I know nothing about politics, but is just
Speaker 3: getting you votes. I am a Martian.
Speaker 1: Astronaut and when it comes to politics in the Sunshine State,
Speaker 1: there's never a dull moment.
Speaker 3: There's an election on in Flanders and I know who
Speaker 3: I walk back. It's a hard working man called Kata
Speaker 3: helps anyone on the track.
Speaker 1: If, as the BBC once suggested, Australian politics is like
Speaker 1: a sitcom directed by Quentin Tarantino, then Queensland politics is
Speaker 1: the spin off. It can be amusing, sure, but it's
Speaker 1: also fiery, poignant and compelling.
Speaker 4: You're right, it's a hard fought political theater in Queensland.
Speaker 1: Michael McKenna is the Australian Queensland Editor.
Speaker 4: It's always thrown up colorful characters. The politics is fought
Speaker 4: really hard and there's a divergence of interests and pressures.
Speaker 4: Part of that is a function of the fact that
Speaker 4: Queensland is a decentralized state, so there's often a conflict
Speaker 4: between the needs of those in the regions and those
Speaker 4: in the city, and they're exploited by the various parties.
Speaker 1: And who are some of those colorful characters that you
Speaker 1: mentioned who've defined Queensland's political landscape over the past few decades.
Speaker 4: In your you can't get past to Djoebajocki Peterson, who
Speaker 4: was the longest serving Queensland Premier. He lost office in
Speaker 4: nineteen eighty nine after the Fitzgerald Inquiry into corruption, which
Speaker 4: looked at the systemic corruption in the Queensland Police Service
Speaker 4: and also into parts of government. And from there we've
Speaker 4: got other characters like more recently Pauline Hansen had Clide Palmer,
Speaker 4: and then you've got the media tart Peter Beatty from
Speaker 4: the Labor Party who was known for his populist ways
Speaker 4: and his availability to the media. So yeah, there's just
Speaker 4: been a long history of colorful characters.
Speaker 1: On October twenty six, Queensland as will go to the
Speaker 1: polls to select a new state government or keep the
Speaker 1: one they already have.
Speaker 4: One of the things that people don't really know about
Speaker 4: Queensland is that voters for the State Parliament don't change
Speaker 4: the color of the government that often. Since federation, we've
Speaker 4: only had seven chains in the political stripes of the government.
Speaker 4: In twenty twelve, there was a huge swing a record
Speaker 4: victory to the then Liberal National Party led by Campbell
Speaker 4: Newman with an absolute smashing majority. But interestingly he was
Speaker 4: a pugnacious premier and quite divisive. He then lost that
Speaker 4: huge majority in just one term. Queenslanders don't, from records,
Speaker 4: like to change government very often.
Speaker 1: Labor has been in power for almost a decade in
Speaker 1: the Sunshine State, but a series of fumbles over key
Speaker 1: issues like youth crime, the cost of living crisis and
Speaker 1: a monumentally flawed forensic testing system means a big swing
Speaker 1: could be on the cards.
Speaker 4: Successive polls for about eighteen months or two years have
Speaker 4: sean that the ll and P, led by David chris A,
Speaker 4: fully is ascendant in the polls. Our most recent poll
Speaker 4: showed that the l and P is on a two
Speaker 4: party basis of fifty five percent to Labour's forty five percent.
Speaker 4: So in the single chamber parliament that we have, that
Speaker 4: would probably result in the loss of twenty seats to
Speaker 4: the LNP, and I think a lot of it comes
Speaker 4: down that there's a really strong mood for change in
Speaker 4: the state. The Labor Party has held government in Queensland
Speaker 4: since twenty fifteen under Anastasia Palachet. There hasn't been a
Speaker 4: lot of huge wins, although some of their progressive social
Speaker 4: issues like decriminalizing abortion and bringing euthanasia have been big
Speaker 4: wins for them. But it's been a meandering government.
Speaker 1: So as a federal election looms, should Anthony Albanesi be worried?
Speaker 4: I think there'll be some lessons for the Federal Labor government.
Speaker 4: It's going to be a real test on the Labor
Speaker 4: brand from Queensland extrapolated across Australia. But what we've seen
Speaker 4: since December is that even though she's been moved on
Speaker 4: as new Premier in Stephen Miles, the polls show that
Speaker 4: support for the Labor brand has stagnated. And of course
Speaker 4: Federal Labor Anthony Albanezi needs to do well in Queensland
Speaker 4: and the next federal election. The Federal Labor Party has
Speaker 4: one of the smallest representations of any government that's held
Speaker 4: the Key to the Lodge since Federation. In Queensland there's
Speaker 4: only five of the thirty Queensland federal seats that's held
Speaker 4: by Labor, so they're desperate to pick up seats in
Speaker 4: Queensland and if there's a drobbing at the state election,
Speaker 4: it will have Federal Labor concerned to say the least.
Speaker 1: Coming up. Stephen Miles and David chris A fully hit
Speaker 1: the campaign trail. Subscribers to The Australian here all Things
Speaker 1: Queensland election first to check us out at the Australian
Speaker 1: dot com dot au and we'll be back after the break.
Speaker 1: These days, where campaign trails go, memes follow, or maybe
Speaker 1: it's the other way around. On this side of the house,
Speaker 1: we will always stand up for a woman's right to choose.
Speaker 1: That's very demure, very mindful. This is Queensland Premier Stephen Miles.
Speaker 1: He's tapped into the meme of the moment to spread
Speaker 1: the word about one of Queensland Labour's big election promises.
Speaker 1: I am concerned about what those opposite will do to
Speaker 1: queensland Women's right to choose if the government changes in October.
Speaker 1: It's part of a broader scare campaign designed to win
Speaker 1: back favor among voters. But the thing is the promised
Speaker 1: abortion supports services have yet to see the light of
Speaker 1: day seven months after they were announced, sources told The
Speaker 1: Australians Queensland editor Michael McKenna and political reporter Lydia Lynch
Speaker 1: that labor leaders were waiting until this week to announce
Speaker 1: the almost ten million dollar program. That may be too little,
Speaker 1: too late in the context of a campaign that's already
Speaker 1: under considerable pressure. Here's Michael McKenna and.
Speaker 4: Side has said hope that a change in leadership would
Speaker 4: improve their electoral chances. And from what we've seen, certainly
Speaker 4: in our news poll since the leadership change, is that
Speaker 4: it hasn't made much difference. He's given it a red
Speaker 4: hot go and it'd be really interesting in the election
Speaker 4: because he's not natural on the stump. He often appears nervous,
Speaker 4: he stutters through his answers. But I think he's improved
Speaker 4: since he's become premier, and he's really tried to remove
Speaker 4: some of the barnacles of the sinking ship. Since he's
Speaker 4: taken the leadership, he's taken tougher action on youth crime,
Speaker 4: he's changed the bar and he's thrown out some fairly
Speaker 4: populist cost of living measures and spent three point seven
Speaker 4: billion dollars on things like the thousand dollars electricity rebate.
Speaker 1: But the fact is.
Speaker 4: That even though some of his personal popularity ratings have
Speaker 4: edged up ever so slightly, the base vote for labor
Speaker 4: has stayed in the doldrums, but as I said, he's
Speaker 4: invigorated and he's given it a red hot.
Speaker 1: Go elsewhere on social media, Stephen Miles opponent Liberal National
Speaker 1: Party leader David Chrisifooley is making yoki.
Speaker 4: I've shown you for my secret recipe for my spaghetti sauce,
Speaker 4: and then we will add the biochis to a positive
Speaker 4: comes to the boil.
Speaker 1: Like Myles, CHRISI. Foley has never led a state election campaign.
Speaker 1: This is the first time in more than three decades
Speaker 1: that's happened, and it's shaping up to be the first
Speaker 1: real test of the charismatic opposition leaders premiershiptential.
Speaker 4: In the last thirty five years, the Conservative Parties have
Speaker 4: been in power just five of those thirty five years,
Speaker 4: and the party has been riven with personal animosities and
Speaker 4: factionalism and so forth. So chris Ipooley has been able
Speaker 4: to unify the party and bring some discipline. He's got
Speaker 4: a long history in politics, although he often tries to
Speaker 4: characterize himself as an anti politician, a farmer who grew
Speaker 4: up I'm a cane farm and then he was a journalist.
Speaker 4: But he didn't spend much time in journalism. He won
Speaker 4: a seat in twenty twelve with Campbell Newman leading the
Speaker 4: party and then he was quickly made the local government minister.
Speaker 4: But as he describes himself, he was a man in
Speaker 4: a hurry. He rushed things, he wasn't prone to consultation
Speaker 4: and he ultimately lost his seat in twenty fifteen along
Speaker 4: with the government. And what he's been doing in the
Speaker 4: last couple of years is really keeping to a narrow
Speaker 4: focus on what he wants to talk about are often
Speaker 4: the failings of the Labor government, and that has been effective.
Speaker 4: But this campaign is going to be a real test
Speaker 4: for this small target strategy. He's going to be on
Speaker 4: the stump every day and this is the first time
Speaker 4: that we're going to see David Chrisofooley under day to
Speaker 4: day's scrutiny and we'll see how he copes with that.
Speaker 4: In Queensland, you can never tell.
Speaker 1: Michael McKenna is The Australian's Queensland Editor. You can follow
Speaker 1: his team's reporting and analysis of the run up to
Speaker 1: the Queensland election at the Australian dot com dot au