| Welcome to your weekly election wrap! As the 2024 Queensland Election gets underway, we’re introducing our special election e-newsletter series to keep you updated and informed about all the key issues. From major policy announcements to key seat analysis, you’ll have all the information you need as the campaign evolves. In this edition: Who went where: Leaders’ diary Key Seat: Keppel LNP ramps up their campaign on youth crime with Crisafulli committing to resign if his government fails to reduce crime Premier announces new government owned energy retailer |
| Who went where: Leaders’ diary In a Queensland first, Premier Steven Miles took advantage of his 50-cent public fares policy by catching the bus to Government House on Tuesday to officially ask the Governor to dissolve parliament. He then headed north to Townsville where there are three key seats with margins under four per cent Labor must hold to retain government. On day two the Premier stopped in Mackay to announce that a re-elected Labor Government would create a publicly owned regional electricity retailer to compete against its existing publicly owned electricity retailer, Ergon. Continuing his trip south, Miles spent two days in key seat Mirani where he spruiked the government’s plan to boost safety on the Bruce Highway. However, his announcement was overshadowed when a journalist asked why the Labor candidate for Mirani wasn’t with him and during his response it was obvious he didn’t even know her name. Both leaders converged on Brisbane on Thursday night for the first leaders’ debate. Prior to this, Crisafulli had also been visiting key regional electorates, choosing the most marginal Queensland seat, Bundaberg, to kick off the LNP’s campaign. As expected, his first announcement of the official campaign was crime related, with the LNP committing $40 million towards helping businesses and councils improve security systems. Crisafulli’s campaign bus then rolled into this week’s key seat focus Keppel, where he announced a $50m program to establish two “step-up, step-down” mental health clinics focused on young people. While in Rockhampton he also committed to turning next year’s federal election into a referendum on the “goat track” of Queensland’s Bruce Highway. On Friday he remained in Brisbane where he was joined by federal opposition leader Peter Dutton to announce an additional $4.5m to Beyond DV for three new Hope Hubs. Crisafulli also committed $18m for 500 GPS ankle monitors for repeat DFV offenders, who would be tracked by police 24/7 from a central surveillance hub. Both campaigns will continue over the weekend with leaders, senior MPs and the press packs continuing to travel all over Queensland. Only 21 days to go. |
 Key Seat: Keppel Yeppoon, Emu Park and northern parts of Rockhampton Incumbent: Brittany Lauga (Labor) Margin: 5.6% With a margin of 5.6%, this seat wouldn’t normally be so concerning for the incumbent government. However, with significant swings away from the government predicted and a strong One Nation candidate running, Lauga is at risk of losing her seat. Keppel has been won by Labor at all but one election since 2001, with Lauga winning the seat back from the LNP in 2015 after the Newman sweep in 2012. She fought off a tough challenge from One Nation in 2017 and then easily increased her margin at the 2020 election, thanks largely to the Covid swing towards the government. Preferences will likely determine the winner of this electorate with One Nation placing Labor last and the LNP putting both Labor and the Greens last on how-to-vote cards. As such, One Nation and LNP preferences will flow to each other, meaning whichever of the two parties finishes ahead on first preference will secure the other parties votes. All of that to say, Brittany Lauga should be very worried. |
| LNP leader to resign if he can’t reduce crime In a pivotal moment just days into the campaign, LNP leader David Crisafulli has told voters he won’t run for re-election in four years’ time should he win the election and fail to deliver a reduction in the number of Queensland’s crime victims. The commitment was made during last night’s leaders’ debate, as Crisafulli spoke about the LNP’s plan to tackle the state’s youth crime crisis by scrapping the controversial ‘detention as a last resort’ principle and introducing ‘Adult Crime, Adult Time’ laws. Premier Steven Miles criticised the LNP’s approach, saying the catchy slogans might sound good in a campaign, but that a more nuanced approach to a difficult problem was required in government. It’s little wonder the LNP and Crisafulli have put crime front and centre of it’s first week on the hustings – the issue is predicted to unseat a swag of government MPs in regional cities such as Townsville and Cairns and is the number one issue at play in this year’s election. The LNP have promised that, if elected, they will legislate their “Adult Crime, Adult Time’ laws and fund ‘gold standard early intervention’ programs by the end of the year. |
| Premier banking on government-owned assets to reduce cost of living Just as the LNP wants to keep everyone talking about crime over the next few weeks, the government is keen to talk up it’s record on cost of living and in the first few days made another big commitment pitched at regional Queensland. The Premier has pledged to establish a second state-owned energy retailer to compete with Ergon Energy in regional Queensland. Unlike Ergon Energy though, the new retailer would operate across the whole state. It would mean Ergon Energy would have the ability to offer discounts and rewards to its customers, things it’s currently restricted from doing as it has no competitor in regional Queensland. Labor says the costs would be met from within Energy Queensland’s existing budget and it could save consumers up to 6 per cent on their energy bills. Unfortunately for the Premier, most economists and energy experts tended to disagree, saying the new retailer would do nothing to bring down power prices for regional Queensland because most of the cost of electricity is in the generation and transmission. Not to be discouraged, Miles followed up yesterday by promising a new ‘energy guarantee’ for Queenslanders, to ensure the state’s power prices were the lowest in Australia. The policy would see government guarantee Queenslanders pay less than the national average default market offer. A great retail announcement for an election campaign for sure, but in truth, Queenslanders have paid less than the DMO for the past two years so the policy is hardly groundbreaking. |
| And briefly in federal political news… A quick look at what dominated federal politics this week, and it was the same issue that dominated global headlines – the rising tensions in the Middle East as Israel ramps up it’s response to Hezbollah’s increasing aggression. Leader of the opposition Peter Dutton has spent most of the week calling out the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister for not joining with the United States in unequivocally backing Israel’s right to respond to the strikes from Iran-backed Hezbollah. Dutton says the PM’s ‘weak leadership’ has seen the country ‘deteriorate’, ahead of heightened tensions and planned protests over the weekend as the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks approaches. Meanwhile, Qatar Airways’ plans to buy a stake in Virgin Australia were finally confirmed this week, giving hope to Australian travellers that Qantas might finally have some competition in the international travel market. The deal will have to be approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board, but Treasurer Jim Chalmers indicated earlier in the week he was broadly supportive of the move. It follows the controversial decision by the Albanese Government last year to block Qatar’s last efforts at expanding their Australian operations. |
