It’s a problem when Labor pork-barrels to protect century-old seats
Splashing cash on seats a party is desperate to win isn’t new, what’s unusual this election is the seats Premier Steven Miles is targeting, writes Hayden Johnson.
QLD Politics
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD Politics. Followed categories will be added to My News.
It’s a clear indication of the government’s electoral struggles when Premier Steven Miles starts pork-barrelling in seats the Labor Party hasn’t lost for more than a century
The notion of splashing cash on seats a party is desperate to win isn’t new.
As premier, Campbell Newman in 2015 pledged some $18m in goodies for his Ashgrove electorate in a failed attempt to be re-elected.
What’s unusual about Mr Miles’s promises this election is the seats he’s targeting.
So far, $312m has been put on the state credit card for four new satellite hospitals in Mackay, Beenleigh, Hervey Bay and Rockhampton.
It’s a targeted plan to get voters in those electorates – who are overwhelmingly Labor supporters – to fall back in love with this third-term government.
Three aren’t marginal seats the premier is attempting to hold, but Labor’s disenfranchised heartland.
In 2012 Rockhampton was Labor’s fourth-safest seat, but it’s now under attack from a reinvigorated LNP.
It isn’t a bellwether electorate, but one the Labor Party hasn’t lost since it was established in its current form in 1972.
Another satellite hospital has been promised 336km north on Bruce Highway in Mackay – a seat won by Labor at every election since 1915.
There’s optimism within the LNP it can win, but that has been tempered somewhat by the exit of unmemorable Assistant State Development Minister Julieanne Gilbert.
Beenleigh is in Macalister – the southern wall protecting a cluster of Labor electorates from the LNP creeping north from the Gold Coast.
Hervey Bay is the outlier – a marginal Labor seat won by Adrian Tantari thanks to ‘Palaszczuk’s pensioners’ in 2020.
The state government will say it is putting satellite hospitals where they’re needed most, but it isn’t coincidental 14 of 15 are slated for Labor electorates.
Now, 51 days from the October 26 poll, Mr Miles isn’t going to let the party die wondering.
One southeast Queensland Labor MP recently admitted they’d never doorknocked more homes or made more calls than running up to this state election.
It’s certainly not over, but time is running out.
Join the conversation
Alleged bikie threats spark CFMEU security overhaul
Private security guards have been stationed at the Queensland CFMEU office after union members allegedly received serious threats from bikies.
Read more
Why LNP really scrapped the controversial CFMEU ‘tax’
Unions and so-called work ‘perks’ have become the scapegoat for blowouts on Qld projects as the LNP moves to scrap the BPIC policy. But there's more to the story, writes CFMEU official Dylan Howard.
Read more