‘I’m about winning seats in Qld’: Albo’s three-day blitz

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared Labor is “prepared’ to pull the election trigger as he used a three-day blitz of Queensland to unveil the woman set to challenge Peter Dutton.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared Labor is “prepared’ to pull the election trigger as he used a three-day blitz of Queensland to unveil the woman set to challenge Peter Dutton.

Disability advocate Ali France has been picked by Labor to challenge Mr Dutton in his electorate of Dickson—Queensland’s most marginal — for a third-time.

She is one of three Labor candidates in Queensland Mr Albanese has announced during his three-day blitz of the state’s southeast.

Mr Albanese has repeatedly said he plans for the government to go full-term, but on Thursday signalled his government was “prepared”.

“This is a sign that we’re prepared,” he said.

Under the rules Mr Albanese could call an election any time between now and May.

The latest Newspoll showed Queensland remains the Coalition’s strongest supporter, with the Opposition leading 54 to Labor’s 46 per cent on a two party-preferred split — the highest of any state.

The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, with the candidate for the seat of Ryan Rebecca Hack and her dog Pickles. Picture: Dan Peled

It is also the only state where Mr Dutton (43 per cent) leads Mr Albanese (41 per cent) as preferred prime minister.

A defiant Mr Albanese, speaking in the Greens-held electorate of Ryan, asserted no poll had yet shown Labor lagging behind the Coalition.

“They’re behind,” he said.

“The truth is that all governments since I’ve been in parliament at this stage in the cycle, more than two years in, none of them could say that they were ahead in every single Newspoll.

“I’m about us winning seats here in Queensland.”

Labor holds just five of the 30 lower house seats in the state, the Coalition hold 21 and the Greens three.

The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese takes a selfie with a supporter at Mount Coot-Tha lookout in Brisbane. Picture: Dan Peled

The government is expected to bank on voters’ seeming aversion to the Coalition nuclear energy policy while spruiking cost-of-living relief through measures like backing away from stage 3 tax cuts.

In regional Queensland, Labor will lean on its “Made in Australia” manufacturing revival plan — a scheme Mr Albanese launched in the state earlier this year.

Ms France has challenged Mr Dutton at both the 2019 and 2022 federal elections, securing a 2.9 per cent swing toward her at the recent poll.

Educator Rebecca Hack has been preselected to go up against Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown in the leafy inner-west electorate of Ryan — which the LNP lost in the 2022 “Greenslide” election.

Rowan Holzberger will again challenge the LNP’s Bert van Manen in Forde.