Anthony Albanese hopes to make inroads in Qld at next federal poll

In his first address is Queensland since being elected prime minister, Anthony Albanese has said there’s no reason federal Labor can’t do as well as its state counterparts. VOTE IN OUR POLL

Labor needs to confidently reach out and gain electoral ground in Queensland at the next federal election, as there is no reason the party can’t make inroads, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said.

Mr Albanese, in his first major speech to the Queensland party faithful since the May poll, made clear he would need to win over the state whose voters “pay on results” and “respect straight talk”.

Federal Labor made electoral gains in all mainland states except Queensland in May, where it lost the inner-city seat once held by Kevin Rudd to the Greens – ending up with five MPs and three senators.

This was despite Labor holding government at a state level in Queensland for nearly 25 of the past 30 years.

In an exclusive interview, Mr Albanese also laid out the regional and inner-city seats he has his eyes on for 2024.

Mr Albanese, speaking to The Courier-Mail, lamented there was no reason why Labor continued to underperform federally in Queensland compared to its state counterparts.

“People are prepared to vote Labor here in Queensland, we need to reach out and have the confidence at the next federal election to win more seats here,” he said.

He said Labor had managed to strengthen its vote in the central Queensland target seats of Capricornia and Flynn and would be looking at those electorates again, with the far north seat of Leichhardt a better chance if popular long-term Liberal National MP Warren Entsch followed through with his retirement plans.

Mr Albanese said the party would be running very hard in the inner-city seats of Brisbane, Ryan and Griffith against the Greens, saying a message of giving voters a voice on the government side would be a strong one in 2024 for those who had previously picked the Greens.

The comments come in the wake of the government’s first budget, with Queensland copping $1bn in budget cuts as road, dam, and rail projects across the state were hacked, slashed and delayed.

But Mr Albanese was not concerned this would reflect badly on Labor and hurt its credentials in the regions, apportioning blame to the previous federal government for failing to get the ball rolling for a decade on a number of projects.

“We’ll get things done as soon as possible, but we’ve inherited a trillion dollars of debt,” he said.

In his speech to the Labor Party faithful on the Sunshine Coast, Mr Albanese said there were more communities in Queensland who need and deserve Labor representation in the Federal Parliament.

“Queenslanders back leaders who show up, who step up, who take responsibility … (and) back governments who match their words with actions,” Mr Albanese said.