Steven Wardill: What low-key campaign means for election day
With pre-poll voting beginning on Monday, Labor are the clear favourites to win the state election. But you wouldn’t know it from the way the leaders are acting, writes Steven Wardill.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
AFTER almost a fortnight of campaigning, perhaps the only thing that’s clear so far is that this is probably the oddest Queensland election in memory.
Annastacia Palaszczuk, the incumbent and clear favourite, is behaving like the rank underdog.
Labor is tossing out big promises and mounting a major scare campaign against its LNP opponents as if the Government desperately needed to get people’s attention and gain ground.
Meanwhile, Deb Frecklington, the outsider predicted to struggle, is trying to undertake a presidential-style campaign that you’d expect from a well-known leader.
LNP to preference Informed Medical Opinions Party last on how-to-vote cards
Opinion: Labor’s rail land buy-back clever politics but policy con job
The LNP’s policies are mostly small and risk averse as if all the party had to do was play it safe for the next fortnight to assure itself victory on October 31.
With The Courier-Mail’s YouGov Poll at the start of the campaign showing Labor in front and Palaszczuk’s popularity returned, it’s as if each leader has accidentally adopted the other’s strategy.
Palaszczuk’s scaremongering about LNP cuts is reminiscent of Bill Shorten’s MediScare campaign which was effective but ultimately failed to get Labor into government.
Frecklington’s small-target approach, which so far doesn’t include a negative campaign, is odd for a leader who remains largely unknown and needs to win nine extra seats.
This seem to indicate that the parties, through their polling, know something voters don’t and the talk internally is that the election remains extremely tight in the seats where it matters most.
Battle hardened from months of media appearances during the COVID pandemic, Palaszczuk has had her best start to start to a campaign from the three she has faced.
After a habit of playing hide-and-seek whenever controversy struck this term, Frecklington has appeared ill-prepared when things have got a bit prickly.
Voting starts at pre-poll stations on Monday and Labor certainly look like winners.
However, Palaszczuk isn’t acting like it and neither is Frecklington so clearly this election is far from over.