Qld Labor warned of repeat of ‘Greenslide’ at state election

The Labor Party’s state president has sounded an ominous warning amid the fallout from the federal election results in Queensland.

Queensland Labor needs to better promote its environmental credentials to combat surging support for the Greens ahead of the 2024 state election, according to the party’s state president who suggested campaigning and polling techniques could change.

In an exclusive interview with The Courier-Mail, John Battams said he would be focusing on redirecting the party’s efforts towards better communication and organising – particularly in areas where “our vote is not what it should be”.

While Labor’s vote increased by 4 per cent on the two-party-preferred count in Queensland at the recent federal election, it lagged behind the vote usually achieved during state elections.

The Labor-held state seats of McConnell, Cooper, Bulimba and Miller are expected to come under threat by the Greens at the 2024 election – as is Clayfield which is held by the LNP.

But Mr Battams said he believed the party could win back South Brisbane from Greens MP Amy MacMahon after she ousted Jackie Trad in 2020.

“I think that if we can show the value of having a Labor government in Queensland and a Labor representative locally, and if you analyse the achievements of a Green representative in the Parliament, I think people may come around to the view that voting Labor is a very good thing to do,” he said.

“And ... we need to better communicate our environmental success to people, particularly younger people.”

The Greens booted the LNP out of Brisbane and Ryan at the recent federal election and Labor out of Griffith.

ALP state president John Battams

But Labor welcomed a swing towards it across many regional seats including Capricornia, Dawson and Flynn.

Following the result, the party’s Queensland branch requested that in the national review of the election there be a specific focus on the Sunshine State.

Mr Battams, who has been Queensland’s president since 2016, said the Greens’ success could “to some extent” be attributed to there being no Teals candidates.

“You might want to refer to it as a ‘Teal substitute’ in Queensland, but nevertheless, obviously we need to focus on our inner-city electorates,” he said.

Mr Battams said the party needed to look at how it could better organise itself in the modern era of digital communications, and that there needed to be ongoing community activity organised by Labor.

He insisted elections weren’t won or lost during a campaign.

“We need to look at our campaigning techniques and our polling techniques to better get an idea of what’s happening out there,” he said.

“The Teals in New South Wales and Victoria spent very little on television advertising, theirs was largely a digital campaign and they campaigned longer-term, not just focusing all their energy on the election campaign.”

Mr Battams said the party needed to better promote its environmental credentials across the state but particularly in Brisbane’s inner city where “it’s obviously a huge issue”.

But he said having Labor at both state and federal levels would bode very well for the party in Queensland because they complemented each other in areas including climate change, NDIS, aged care and health.

Asked whether he thought there needed to be any shake-up in state Cabinet ahead of the 2024 election, Mr Battams said no but that it was a matter for the Premier.