POLL CALL: No new taxes promise as border stoush rubbished

The Premier made the biggest announcement of the campaign so far on Friday, while the LNP had no new announcements.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk visits the Skyrail tourist attraction in the Daintree Rainforest.Credit: Lydia Lynch

Annastacia Palaszczuk travelled to Cairns to announce a $1 billion package, made up of some new money and some existing funding, to upgrade schools across the state.

LNP leader Deb Frecklington walks along The Strand in Townsville on Friday morning.Credit: Matt Dennien

Ms Frecklington meanwhile travelled to Townsville where she “announced” a $20 million manufacturing fund , but when pressed by journalists freely admitted it had been announced already, back in July.

Asked why she had travelled to the state’s most marginal seat of Townsville with no new policies up her sleeve, Ms Frecklington simply said she was putting forward her vision for Queensland.

Ms Frecklington was also pressed on how she will pay for her election promises, with both Labor and the LNP ruling out new taxes in the next term of government.

Labor has promised to borrow more to stimulate the economy, while the LNP has promised to get the budget back into surplus in the next four years.

“You know how we’ll do it? By working extremely hard,” she said.

Both parties again had not a lot for tourism, with Labor mentioning the money it had already allocated for the Skyrail project, while the LNP did not have any tourism policies to talk about on Friday.

The border issue was largely defused on friday, with Queensland's chief health Officer Jeannette Young announcing that she wouldn't make a decision on the NSW border until later in the month.

She also said NSW had more time to find the final few links to a number of cases of community transmission in that state, which would mean the border reopening date of November 1 wouldn't have to be pushed back.

Ms Palaszczuk dismissed as "rubbish" claims by NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard that he had "evidence" that Ms Palaszczuk had made political decisions on the border (although he refused to provide the evidence when asked).

The election campaign rolls on tomorrow with both campaigns back in southeast Queensland to start the day, however that’s a wrap for this week for Poll Call.

Our reporters will still be following the leaders on the hustings over the weekend and we’ll be bringing you all the latest news and colour from the campaign, however Poll Call will rejoin you on Monday.

See you then!

The leaders have again donned high-vis for media events today, although Ms Palaszczuk finally broke her streak and did one without it, while visiting the Skyrail near Cairns.

Neither leader donned the hard hats today however, so Ms Palaszczuk remains slightly in front on that measure.

The Premier's $1 billion schools upgrade commitment has been welcomed by the Queensland Teachers' Union, which represents 48,000 state school teachers and principals.

Queensland Teachers' Union president Kevin Bates.Credit: Harrison Saragossi

QTU president Kevin Bates says the funding promise will help address the expected rapid growth of state schools in the coming decade.

"One of the key issues for us this election was a commitment to school infrastructure ... we have a growing state schools sector and we're expecting an extra 8000 students per year from now to 2030," he says.

"Clearly, this [funding announcement] highlights a strong commitment to building infrastructure and expanding existing facilities ... as well as a significant commitment to new schools.

"This is also about enhancing facilities at existing schools, extending halls and a number of other specific plans for the acquisition [of land] for future schools.

"However, we will look forward with interest to the LNP making an announcement about their plans for infrastructure in schools.

"One thing we certainly know is that a strong commitment to schools is part of the COVID-19 recovery."

Annastacia Palaszczuk, responding to claims from NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard that he has "evidence" that she was politicising the border issue:

“Can he just concentrate on his own issues as Health Minister in NSW?”

Deb Frecklington, when quizzed about how the LNP will achieve its goal of a surplus in the next term of office while ruling out any tax hikes:

“You know how we do it? By working extremely hard.”

The Queensland Resources Council has been forced to scramble to register as a lobby group, after the subject of its ire - the Queensland Greens - caught it lobbying without permission.

The Queensland Resources Council has been running a targeted ad campaign against the Greens.

Under ECQ Rules, lobby groups and other third parties intending to spend more than $6000 in electoral expenditure, such as advertising, must register with the ECQ and declare the spending.

READ MORE: Resources Council registers as lobby group after being caught out by Greens

The QRC has been running a series of ads across radio, TV and billboards, attacking the Greens in recent weeks.

The Greens noticed they had not registered as a third party group for the Queensland election, and notified the ECQ, forcing the QRC to belatedly register.

Penalties for not registering can be as much as $26,690, but on Friday afternoon the ECQ said it would not take action.

Analysis of the media footprint of Annastacia Palaszczuk and Deb Frecklington over the first week of the election campaign has found the Labor premier has surged in the final run, while her LNP challenger has fallen away.

The data, compiled by media analysts Streem, looked at the number of times the respective leaders were mentioned across media, and then compared their "share of voice".

That measures the percentage of the total media coverage of the election snapped up by each candidate.

The leaders were relatively even in their mentions on Monday and as the campaign kicked off on Tuesday, with Ms Palaszczuk slightly ahead, possibly due to the fact that she is the incumbent and has a higher profile to start with.

However by Wednesday they had started to diverge, and by Friday Ms Palaszczuk was getting the lion's share of coverage, with a corresponding drop in Ms Frecklington's coverage.

It's important to point out the graph only charts the raw data, and doesn't say whether the coverage was positive or negative.

However during an election campaign, especially one in which unprecedented numbers of people are preparing to vote early, just getting your name into the public domain can be a big help.

Expect the LNP camp to step up its efforts next week to cut through the noise and get Ms Frecklington's face in front of voters - socially distanced, of course.

During the campaign, Brisbane Times is running our Ask a Reporter feature, where we'll endeavour to answer all your questions about the campaign, big or small. All the answers can be found here.

Daniel asks: The Gold Coast has progressively turned blue since 2009 with only Gaven now held by the ALP and on a wafer thin margin. How likely and how confident would Labor be to pick up more seats on the Coast and reverse the voting changes of the last 11 years?

Queensland University of Technology political analyst, former Labor government minister and former Speaker John Mickel answers: The Gold Coast is always interesting.

I think Labor will be competitive in five seats – Gaven (obviously), Bonney, Coomera, Burleigh and Currumbin.

The Gold Coast has been solidly LNP for years.

It’s not true that the LNP domination of the Gold Coast has been a recent phenomenon. Labor had a breakthrough when Merri Rose won the seat of Currumbin in 1992 and she was the lone Labor voice down there for quite some time.

Even when the conservative vote collapsed in 2015, Gold Coast seats remained in LNP hands despite swings to Labor.

But there has been huge population growth, particularly around Pimpama and Ormeau in the electorate of Coomera, which may change the complexion of that seat in Labor’s favour.

Another huge issue will be the response to the coronavirus pandemic. The new cases in NSW means that concern will be heightened and there’s a significant population on the Gold Coast that can be particularly vulnerable to the virus.

On the other hand, the response from the small business community on the Gold Coast is uneven. There are some that are grateful that they have certainty, that they can move around, they can open – in other words, all the things you can’t do in Victoria. But then you have the tourism industry that wants everything opened.

So the chance for Labor may be the growth in Coomera (around Pimpama and Ormeau), hanging on to Gaven and a redistribution that put more Labor areas into Bonney. The dead giveaway was Deb Frecklington, on the first day of the campaign, campaigned in Bonney – not a seat they hoped to win, but a seat they hoped to retain.

Annastacia Palaszczuk will not say whether Labor would unveil an industry-wide package for the crippled tourism sector before the election campaign wraps up.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk visits the Skyrail tourist attraction in the Daintree Rainforest in north Queensland on Friday.Credit: Lydia Lynch

The Premier acknowledged the industry was struggling as a result of the pandemic but blamed the decline in tourism on international border closures.

“There are people coming to Cairns, it is the busiest Qantas route, from my understanding, in Queensland,” she said.

“I am looking forward to the day when all of Australia can open up but we can only do that when it is safe to do so.

“We are always looking at new and exciting ideas. There will be further announcements made during the campaign.”

The government offered a $5 million concessional loan for Cairns’ Skyrail cableway, part of a previously announced relief package.

A Queensland budget surplus would be achieved in four years by “working extremely hard”, LNP leader Deb Frecklington says.

Queensland LNP leader Deb Frecklington in Townsville on Friday.Credit: Matt Dennien

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic headwinds and a big-spending federal budget this week, Ms Frecklington is sticking to her guns that a balanced budget would be an aim of an LNP government.

Asked how this would be achieved, alongside big-ticket election pledges of her own, without cutting public sector jobs or service, she said: ”by working extremely hard”.

“By backing Queensland manufacturing business, by not wasting money on things like changing the hospital name, like making sure we control government expenses,” Ms Frecklington added.

But she would not be drawn on how this squared with acceptances in the federal budget about spending out of the recession.

“We have ruled out any new taxes,” she said.

At a later media conference in Cairns, Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick said that meant the LNP had only one way to achieve its surplus.

"She said she would rule out tax increases, she said nothing about cuts. The LNP are hell bent on delivering a surplus and they will cut to do it," Mr Dick said.

Both major parties have now ruled out introducing any new state taxes or increasing existing ones until 2024.

Queensland Treasurer Cameron DickCredit: Getty Images

Treasurer Cameron Dick has extended his year long tax ban out until the next election.When releasing the state’s economic update in September, Mr Dick was unable to rule out a tax hike past June 30 next year.

“We have no intention of increasing taxes or revenue at this stage,” he said in September.“But I cannot say what the future holds.”

On Friday he promised “we are not increasing taxes”.

“There will be no new taxes under a Labor government,” he said.

Deb Frecklington had already promised no tax hikes under an LNP government.

The party has also ruled out forced redundancies and borrowing more money and is yet to release the coatings of its election promises.

Most of Labor’s promises will be paid for with borrowed money.