Queensland Election 2017: Date with destiny for Palaszczuk and Nicholls

TWO unlikely leaders have their work cut out for them convincing disenfranchised Queenslanders that they have the answers, writes Steven Wardill.

• ‘Newman’s wrong. We’ve learned from our mistakes’
• Expect to see a lot more of these guys
• Premier sets her date with destiny

TWO improbable combatants and one very unpredictable poll.

Annastacia Palaszczuk and Tim Nicholls face off for the November 25 election in a contest that’s already been described by some as a “date with destiny”.

Both elected in 2006, both talented and ambitious, it may appear providence played a part bringing this political fight to fruition.

However, accident rather than design ensured Palaszczuk and Nicholls both overcame what were seemingly insurmountable odds to get them to this juncture.

Bequeathed a seat by her father, Palaszczuk was a welcome member of former premier Peter Beattie’s fourth-term team.

But she wasn’t considered leadership material until Labor’s election annihilation in 2012 whipped out all the more likely candidates and left the party with just seven MPs.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk addressing the media on Sunday. (AAP Image/Josh Woning)

Nicholls had to wrestle back a blue-ribbon electorate from Labor to make the switch from city council to state.

But he was in the wrong party until the Liberal and Nationals merged and it took five different iterations of LNP leaderships over almost a decade for him to get the gong.

Now Palaszczuk and Nicholls will spend the next 27 days fighting it out for the right to run Queensland and neither begins the contest as the clear frontrunner.

After a term in office, Labor enters the election with the same lacklustre polling that allowed it to limp over the line in 2015.

Satisfaction with Palaszczuk’s performance has nose-dived in recent times.

The LNP, on the other hand, has gone backwards considerably from the vote which lost it the 2015 election.

And satisfaction with Nicholls has not poked its nose out of negative territory during the 18 months he has been the LNP’s leader.

Looming large behind both is One Nation.

Queensland LNP leader Tim Nicholls meets supporters in his electorate of Clayfield. (AAP Image/Glenn Hunt)

The party’s renaissance also seemed improbable during Pauline Hanson’s era as a perennial loser at federal and state elections.

However, Hanson’s slim loss in the state seat of Lockyer in 2015 gave an indication there was still spark in her party.

Three years later and that spark has become a bush fire.

Where One Nation’s vote concentrates and which major party its voters choose as their second preference will be crucial to the outcome of the 2017 election.

Both Palaszczuk and Nicholls have already begun courting this vote with parochial and protectionist policies.

However, the two unlikely leaders have their work cut out for them convincing disenfranchised Queenslanders that they have the answers.

That’s what makes this election, at this very early stage, so impossible to pick.