Robert Schwarten predicts LNP “Steven Bradbury” triumph
A Labor powerbroker is predicting a “Steven Bradbury” win for the LNP this election, saying his party is “in more strife than a wallaby at a dingo’s picnic”.
Rockhampton
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For the first time in his life, Labor warhorse Robert Schwarten is contemplating an election wipe out for his party in the Capricornia region.
Mr Schwarten, the former long serving Member for Rockhampton and a senior minister in a procession of Labor governments, is facing the reality of Labor losing the seats of Rockhampton and Keppel amid a statewide election defeat.
“We’re in more strife than a wallaby at a dingo’s picnic,” he said.
He retired from state politics at the 2012 election which the LNP, led by Campbell Newman, won in a landslide, leaving Labor with just seven seats.
He concedes the current polls pointing to a strong LNP win are impossible to ignore.
Mr Schwarten believes four reasons are at play.
He said the Labor brand in Rockhampton has been damaged by years of false political advertising claiming Labor has spent nothing in 50 years of representing Rockhampton.
“It’s absolutely positively untrue,” he said.
“Secondly, they play into the sentiment that Brisbane gets everything, Rocky gets nothing, regions get nothing. And that’s been fed by the Katters. It’s probably also the Olympics and a whole range of other things. One Nation pushes that line as well.”
The third reason he offered was that Labor has been an “accidental government to some extent” after coming back from just seven seats, to beat the LNP in a shock 2015 result.
“No one would have believed that Newman could have made such a terrible mess of government in the space of three years,” he said.
“We got down to the lowest vote in Labor history - to seven people. It was beyond belief that we could form government after three years.
“You would have to say that we won at their expense - they were such a terrible government, he was such an arrogant, out-of-touch premier and (Annastacia) Palaszczuk got entrenched in there (as leader) by good luck in the first place.
“Secondly, she had Covid come along and what she inherited was a whole lot of greenhorn ministers and members of parliament who, to put it bluntly, probably wouldn’t have known where the toilets were.
“When I went in there (as a minister), I had been mentored, but these people, in one week they were in another job, the next they were Cabinet ministers.
“We’ve had an inexperienced government where they’ve had to make some pretty tough decisions and so on, but they were publicly acceptable.”
Mr Schwarten believes if Steven Miles was given more time to prove his mettle, he might be better able to convince people to keep Labor in power.
“I think Miles, had he had a bit more time to have a run at this, would have been a fairer go,” he said.
“But I think he’s done a pretty good account of himself. He’s actually created some controversial policies - he’s prepared to have a go.
“This government in my view hasn’t done a bad job. I think that people today don’t tolerate long-term members like they used to.
“Whether they are doing the best job in the world, it doesn’t matter.
“You just have to be a realist to face that as a premier... and I think Annastacia was slow to recognise that.”
Mr Schwarten said he believed Ms Palaszczuk could not see there was a problem in regional Queensland last year, with voters beginning to turn on Labor.
“I think the combination of all that, has got it against us,” he said.
“What it has meant is the LNP has been able to do a Steven Bradbury, basically - stay on the stage long enough to watch our people fall over.”
An exit poll of 1000 Queenslanders at early voting polls in 10 key seats across the state conducted by this outlet and its sister publications on Tuesday revealed a strong primary vote for the LNP and trouble for Labor.
The results put the LNP’s primary vote at 48.2 per cent compared with Labor’s 30 per cent, the Greens’ 9.4 per cent and One Nation at 7.4 per cent.
The battle appears even closer in Rockhampton, where the former mayor’s high profile and a strong One Nation vote means it will likely come down to preferences.
In the exit poll, Labor candidate Craig Marshall’s primary was at 22 per cent, well behind the LNP candidate Donna Kirkland’s 33 per cent.
Ms Strelow, a former Labor Party member but now running as an independent, was also polling 22 per cent, marginally ahead of One Nation candidate David Bond on 18.
Wednesday’s exit polling of 100 early Keppel voters at Bay Plaza Yeppoon has revealed another Labor seat in Central Queensland could also fall.
A large portion of those willing to share who they cast their votes for said they put LNP candidate Nigel Hutton first.
He received 42 per cent, behind One Nation’s James Ashby on 32 per cent and Labor Keppel MP Brittany Lauga on 25 per cent.
The Greens candidate Clancy Mullbrick received one per cent, but Family First’s Roger McWhinney and Independent Petrina Murphy did not receive any.
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