Greens confident of chances in other seats
As a new poll reveals the Greens are on track to unseat former deputy premier Jackie Trad in South Brisbane, the minor party is growing confident about its chances in other nearby electorates.
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The Greens are increasingly optimistic of strong results in neighbouring electorates to South Brisbane, as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk again ruled out doing deals with any minor parties in a hung parliament.
Ms Palaszczuk yesterday refused to say why voters should back former deputy Jackie Trad, before reluctantly saying she was an important member of her team.
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It followed an exclusive The Courier-Mail Newspoll that revealed Ms Trad is on track for a loss to the Greens in her South Brisbane electorate, potentially putting the government’s slim majority at risk.
The Greens are growing confident about their chances in the nearby electorates of McConnel and Cooper, and are even hopeful of wins based on their surveys through doorknocks and phone calls.
Griffith University political expert Paul Williams believed the Greens would win South Brisbane and retain Maiwar, and suggested there could also be a “surprise third seat”.
He said he did not expect Labor to come under threat from the Greens in Cooper, where incumbent MP Kate Jones is bowing out, and that he did not expect the Greens’ share of the vote in McConnel to be as high as it will be in South Brisbane.
“You never know, it’s a virtually identical constituency (to South Brisbane),” Dr Williams said of McConnel.
QUT adjunct associate professor and Labor stalwart John Mickel said he expected Ms Trad to win her seat, and also believed the party would win McConnel and Cooper.
“My hunch is that Grace Grace will outpoll the Greens (in McConnel),” the former Queensland parliament speaker said.
“My hunch is that (Labor’s) Jonty Bush would get back there (in Cooper) on a reduced margin.”
He said although the LNP was directing its preferences against Ms Trad, he suggested there would be a reluctance on the part of some LNP voters to follow their how to vote card that could make a “Labor-Greens alliance a reality”.
The LNP is preferencing the Greens above Ms Trad in South Brisbane.
Ms Palaszczuk yesterday said she believed all candidates and members were working “absolutely very hard and Jackie (Trad) is an important member of my team.”
Asked whether Ms Trad needed her support, the Premier said her former treasurer was working very hard.
“This is a close election, I’ve said it all the time and Queenslanders need to know this election is on a knife-edge,” she said.
She ruled out forming government with the Katter’s Australian Party, after yesterday urging Queenslanders to choose between “a majority Palaszczuk Labor government or a One Nation-Palmer-LNP rabble”.
“Katter’s as well, there we go,” she said.
