The issues that matter most to Qld voters – and how MPs plan to address them

Giving a tongue-in-cheek warning to MPs in parliament, Labor’s retiring umpire of the house, Curtis Pitt, reminded them to clean out their desks among the green leather seats ahead of next month’s election.

“Other items will be sold in the gift shop,” he joked.

It was one of the few lighthearted moments in this term’s final three-day sitting before the October 26 poll, as MPs ratcheted up their negative political attacks.

This Queensland parliament has sat for the last time, with the next likely to look a little different.Credit: Michelle Smith

Both Labor Premier Steven Miles and LNP Opposition Leader David Crisafulli have made it clear what they think the key issues are for the final stretch of their campaigns. But what about voters?

When asked in the latest Resolve Strategic polling for Brisbane Times what their top priority was from a list of 21 issues, the answer was overwhelming.

“Keeping the cost of living low” was first for 51 per cent. In second place, at 14 per cent, was house and rental affordability, while crime and antisocial behaviour came in third at 13 per cent.

The next was economic management and recovery, health and aged care, and the environment and climate change, all on 5 per cent.

This also tracked closely with another recent survey from Wolf and Smith, but with housing and crime flipped. In that poll, crime rated as a bigger issue in Queensland than all other states, where it ranked below at least living costs, health, housing and the economy.

I’ve also been asking readers what they want politicians to focus on.

From more than 100 responses, climate action ranked highest among the most commonly mentioned topics, then housing, health and crime, First Nations truth and treaty, and the cost of living.

(Have those readers, pollsters, politicians, political parties and the media missed anything? Let us know using the form above, or in the comments below).

So what did MPs offer in the last sitting week regarding their plans to address these issues?

Crisafulli and his team have repeatedly stated their election “battle lines”: the youth crime, health, housing and cost-of-living “crises” they’ve been hammering Labor over for more than a year.

However, youth crime has been the LNP’s major focus, and remained so this week as it tried to define the third-term Labor government as past its time.

A search of my inbox shows the last media release from a shadow cabinet member mentioning the cost of living landed in July from Deb Frecklington, who this week called on Labor to ditch changes to GP payroll tax due next July.

Since Crisafulli’s June budget reply, the party has mainly focused on youth crime, with some additional detail on housing.

(This is despite overall child offender rates declining for years, except among “serious repeat offenders” and amid an uptick in crimes disproportionately committed by youths).

This crime focus from the LNP and some media has clearly rankled Miles and Labor, both of which are facing significant pressure internally and externally from those who point to the vast evidence that while “tough” measures may be popular, they are ineffective or counterproductive.

But Miles and the parliamentary Labor team have also sought to lean in to calls for such action from parts of the community concerned about crime.

While also focused heavily on the LNP’s four “crises”, Labor has leaned most heavily into the cost of living and its efforts to address this – funded by coal royalties, as MPs and government ad campaigns have been making clear.

Labor has also been keen to highlight the voting record of most in the LNP against the decriminalisation – or more recent expansion – of abortion access, and actions on the environment and energy transition.

And amid LNP criticism over the existence of the “crises” despite billions more in revenue collected than forecast in Cameron Dick’s first budget, the treasurer pointed to Queensland’s reaffirmed AA+ credit rating by one agency.

In turn, Labor MPs questioned the whereabouts of the LNP’s yet-to-come tax and debt plan, while both parties’ health and housing plans or actions also rated a few mentions.

This parliament has now sat for the last time, with the next one likely to look a little different based on current voter intentions. Ultimately though, its direction after October 26 is in your hands.

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