Scott Morrison’s fiery regional pitch as Qld emerges as key election battleground
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is looking to double down on the gains his party made off the back of Bob Brown’s ill-fated anti-Adani convoy, as he tours regional Queensland.
Federal Election
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The “green-left” claim to be “more virtuous” than regional Australians and “deride their jobs as unworthy”, Prime Minister Scott Morrison will say on Wednesday in a highly-charged speech invoking Bob Brown’s anti-Adani convoy.
Seeking to remind regional voters of the 2019 controversy which helped deliver him government, Mr Morrison will deliver his pitch to regional voters while in the heart of Central Queensland, Rockhampton in the crucial seat of Capricornia, speaking of a widening divide between city and country.
He will also pledge that almost 450,000 of the 1.3 million jobs the Coalition pledged to deliver in the next five years, or almost one in three, will be in regional areas.
Using inflammatory language, Mr Morrison will say many regional people “feel looked down on”.
“Their jobs and lifestyles derided or seen as somehow unworthy, in a world where the big talkers all seem to work in government, or finance, or the tech industry or the media,” Mr Morrison will said.
“You witnessed this sort of thing first-hand at the last election – courtesy of Bob Brown and the Greens and their convoy to central Queensland. A convoy against coal jobs.
“This was the Green left in this country basically saying – ‘We’re more virtuous than you and we think you need to change’. Now that is not the country I know.”
In 2019 former Greens leader Bob Brown led a convoy into central Queensland protesting the Adani coal mine, which in turn sparked pro-Adani protests in Clermont.
It was widely considered to have increased the Coalition’s vote in regional Queensland, where the LNP saw a swing towards it after preferences.
The Coalition and the Greens have been claiming there will be a Labor-Greens power sharing deal in the event of a hung parliament, but Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has repeatedly rejected the proposal.
Mr Morrison gave an election pledge in the first week of the campaign to create 1.3 million jobs over the next five years, saying they would be created suite of initiatives designed to boost skills and turbocharge employment.
He will say 450,000 of those jobs will be in the regions, pointing to policies include Energy Security Regional Development plan, the Regional Accelerator Program and a $1.3 billion investment in regional telecommunications.
“I’m confident that with our detailed plans, and with the hard work, enterprise and resilience of regional Australia, we can realise this goal,” Mr Morrison will say.
“What we need to do to ensure the voices of regional Australians are heard, their needs met, their opportunities opened up,” he said.
“It’s about preserving the way of life for Australians living in regional areas.”
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