Premier eyes early election ahead of electoral shake-up

THE Queensland Premier has resigned herself to accepting the most dramatic redrawing of the state’s electoral map in three decades, saying she would accept the “umpire’s decision”.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture Mark Cranitch

PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk says Labor will fight the next election on the new electorate boundaries to be released by the Queensland Redistribution Commission tomorrow.

A day after saying she could not guarantee it, Ms Palaszcuk this morning said she would accept the “umpire’s decision”.

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The commission’s draft report - including the location of four new seats - is due to be gazetted tomorrow.

“We will accept the independent decision of the Queensland Electoral Commission and we will fight the next election on the boundaries that are presented to us,” the Premier said this morning.

When asked if that meant there would be no appeals of the draft boundaries, she said the parties might have “different views” but it was her “clear intention” to fight the next election on the new boundaries.

Yesterday, when asked if she could guarantee the next election would be fought on the new boundaries, Ms Palaszczuk said: “I can’t say that for sure”.

“It is my clear intention that we will fight the next election on whatever the electoral commission hands out,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

OVERNIGHT: Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has left the door open to an early election as the state awaits the outcome of the biggest electoral overhaul in ­almost three decades.

The Queensland Redistribution Commission’s long-awaited draft report on the make-up of 93 state seats is due to be gazetted tomorrow.

It is expected to be one of the biggest boundary overhauls since the Electoral and Administrative Reform Commission (EARC) redrew the state’s boundaries following the Fitzgerald Inquiry.

It will add four seats to the current 89 and is also tipped to redraw — and possibly rename — more than one-third of the existing electorates.

Seats along the coast are expected to be most impacted, with the extra seats helping to safeguard those in the west.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk could not guarantee the next election would be fought on new boundaries. Picture: AAP Image/Dave Hunt

The four new seats are widely tipped to be on the Gold Coast, Ipswich, in the area north of Brisbane and on the Sunshine Coast, in growth corridors over the current average enrolment quota of 32,204 voters. Some areas differ from the average by more than 25 per cent, including Murrumba, Coomera and Bundamba.

The draft report’s boundaries will be finalised by June with the intention they come into force when the writ is issued for the next election.

But Ms Palaszczuk yesterday refused to guarantee the next election would be fought on the new boundaries.

“I can’t say that for sure,” she said.

“Those boundaries haven’t even come out yet ... It is my intention that the election is just over a year away.”

Both Labor and the LNP are eagerly awaiting the draft report with the new boundaries to help map out which side could win. One Nation hopes to pick up more than 10 seats.

The Courier-Mail understands Labor will act quickly following the draft report’s release with its sitting MPs given priority in deciding if and where they will run. That process is expected to be finalised within days, potentially by the weekend, with electorates not currently held by Labor to be considered after that.

It is understood jockeying for seats has begun, with Labor’s Right faction mooting a candidate for a potential Springfield electorate. The LNP is expected to allow sitting MPs to nominate for their chosen electorate but with members and the party’s executive to decide who is preselected.

This will be the last election in Queensland before four-year terms kick in. It is due in January but can be held as late as May 5 next year.