Qld election 2020: Minor party voices won’t be ignored
The major parties are neck and neck in the race for Queensland’s vote, with a hung parliament looking more likely by the day. It means key crossbenchers could have a big say in the makeup of the next parliament. Jack McKay reports.
Parties
Don't miss out on the headlines from Parties. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THEY sit right at the back of Queensland’s ornate parliamentary chamber, but they will be looming large in what could be a knife-edge state election race.
If the polls tighten, and Queenslanders return another hung parliament, they could even become the most powerful people in the state, deciding the premier and direction of Queensland in the post-COVID era.
QLD election 2020: Why state’s future lies in hands of the Greens
QLD election 2020: Why real winners are the Greens no matter the results
Townsville small business owner Jen Alexander to run for One Nation in Thuringowa
Qld election 2020: Why Annastacia Palaszczuk and Deb Frecklington are both telling lies
Dr Richard Stuckey to run for Currumbin MP in state election
The Greens only have one MP sitting in parliament at the moment – but they are increasingly optimistic about their chances of seizing more inner-city seats from Labor, chipping away at their slim majority.
The Katter’s Australian Party are confident of keeping the three electorates they currently occupy, as they try to snap up more seats in regional and rural Queensland.
And independent Sandy Bolton is the bookies favourite in Noosa after she won if from an LNP MP at the 2017 poll.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and LNP leader Deb Frecklington kicked off their first week on the campaign trail promising not to do deals with any of them if their parties fall short of a majority.
But the Greens’ Michael Berkman does not believe the Premier’s claim at all, describing it as a “bald-faced lie”.
“The big parties will talk about chaos, but that’s simply because they want to hold onto their power,” he says.
WHAT THE GREENS WANT
JACKING up royalties on mining companies and slapping a levy on the banks.
Splashing an extra $7 billion over the next four years to “fully fund” public education.
Forking out a massive $25 billion to build state-owned renewable energy to reach a 100 per cent renewable energy target by 2030.
Providing free lunches and breakfasts to every state school student in Queensland.
Making public transport free for everyone across the state.
Building another 100,000 public homes.
These are just some of the policies that the Greens will push for if Labor needs to rely on the minor party to prop up a minority government.
And Labor will be the only party they can give any form of supply to in a hung parliament, with the Greens categorically ruling out a deal with the LNP.
Mr Berkman – who made history in 2017 as the first Greens candidate elected to the Queensland parliament – says all of their policies will be on the table in any balance of power negotiation.
He says their mining royalties plan – which they claim would raise an extra $55 billion over the next four years – would fund everything they want at this election.
But the proposal would put them at odds with Labor’s plan to freeze mining royalties for three years, potentially putting the government in a bind if they need the Greens in a hung parliament.
“The question that Labor will have to answer after October 31st is whose side are they on,” Mr Berkman says.
“Are they on the side of the Queensland Resources Council … or are they on the side of ordinary Queenslanders who just want mining corporations to pay a fair share in royalties …”
WHERE THE GREENS THINK THEY CAN WIN
THERE are seven seats on their radar at this election, where they claim they have a chance of winning.
But their best chance of picking up a new seat is South Brisbane, where former deputy premier Jackie Trad will be fighting to retain the electorate with her margin of 3.6 per cent.
The Greens’ South Brisbane candidate, Amy MacMahon, will be buoyed by LNP preferences, after the conservative party decided to preference Labor last on all of their how to vote cards across the state.
Greens candidate Kirsten Lovejoy in the inner-city seat of McConnel could also be given a boost by the preference decision, if the LNP falls to third place in the electorate.
“The LNP can do whatever it likes with its how to vote cards,” Mr Berkman says, as he points to the Greens’ “enormous” campaign across their target seats.
“We have decided as a party in a grassroots democratic fashion that One Nation and the LNP will be last on all our how to vote card recommendations,” he says.
The Maiwar MP insists the Greens “real engagement” with voters and their “grassroots politics” would change people’s votes.
Beyond his own seat, the Greens are honing in on the electorate of Cooper (held by outgoing Labor MP and Minister Kate Jones), along with Clayfield (held by former LNP leader Tim Nicholls), Greenslopes, Miller and Moggill.
Labor’s deputy leader Steven Miles this week said the LNP’s preference decision meant South Brisbane and McConnel were vulnerable to the Greens.
SANDY BOLTON
If Labor and the LNP fall one short of a majority, they might not have to do a deal with any party at all – they could strike one with the independent Member for Noosa, Ms Bolton.
Labor struck a similar deal in 2015 with then-independent MP Peter Wellington, and he was elevated to Speaker of the parliament.
Asked this week about the Speaker role in an interview with Saturday Insight, Ms Bolton says she has not even thought about it.
“What I would like to do is continue to deliver for my community and concentrate on that,” she says.
“I’ve lived here for 30 years. I am very driven to ensure that this community continues on its fantastic path.”
She says she is “very Noosa-centric” and points to a number of local issues she is focused on, including expansion of the emergency and casualty services at Noosa Hospital and the completion of Beckmans Rd stages 2 and 3.
She is also pushing for a new wellness, community and sports hub and phase 2 of the Noosa River improvements and management.
“When I commit to something on behalf of my community, I do not let it go,” Ms Bolton says.
More broadly, she says she has advocated for issues to be brought to the parliamentary chamber that Queenslanders “want debated”.
Questioned about who she would back in a hung parliament, Ms Bolton says she doesn’t “back anyone”.
“If we come to that … I will look at who will be able to deliver the best for Noosa and the region,” she says.
“I objectively look at every Bill and research it and prepare a speech …”
WHAT THE KAP IS CALLING FOR
Katter’s Australian Party leader Robbie Katter also does not believe Ms Palaszczuk and Ms Frecklington when they say they won’t do a deal to form a government in a hung parliament.
He says the major parties should respect the will of the people if they are forced to negotiate and navigate a hung parliament, and not throw tantrums if they don’t get their own way.
“Quite frankly, that’s not their decision to make,” he says.
“That’s the decisions for the voters.”
Mr Katter says it makes no sense for him to currently say who his party would support in the event of a hung parliament.
“The only reason you would vote for me rather than Liberal and Labor is that I can offer you a genuine change in direction,” he says.
“But I can’t offer that to you if I’ve already declared who I’m negotiating with before a negotiation because I’ve cancelled out all of my bargaining power.”
The KAP say their sole priority is having a government that is not “Brisbane-centric” and doesn’t spend all of its time “pandering” to the inner suburbs of the city.
They want to repeal vegetation management rules and regulations imposed on farmers and graziers in a bid to “restore fairness”.
They want a new dam at Hell’s Gate in northern Queensland, saying it would create thousands of jobs.
And they say if the major political parties can talk about spending billions on new roads in Brisbane, then governments “can find a few million” to deliver dialysis machines in rural townships.
They also believe governments should “treat coal the same as solar and wind”.
The KAP boosted their numbers in the parliament at the 2017 election from two to three seats, after they seized the north Queensland electorate of Hinchinbrook off the LNP.
They are now eyeing off about six seats in rural in regional Queensland at this election, with Mr Katter saying they are confident about retaining the electorates they currently hold.
“We don’t take anything for granted,” he says.
WHERE THE POLLS ARE AT
The latest The Courier-Mail YouGov poll showed Labor was ahead of the LNP 52 per cent to 48 per cent on a two party preferred basis, putting Ms Palaszczuk in the box seat to govern for a third term.
This week the Premier repeatedly insisted she would not do any deals if her party was unable to reach that majority number of 47 seats.
She repeatedly asked Queensland for a majority, and even said “minority governments don’t work”, despite leading one between 2015 and 2017.
Ms Frecklington made similar assertions that she would do no deals with the minor parties to form government.
“With every fibre of my being, I’m going to work hard to get the confidence of Queenslanders because they deserve a majority government,” she said.
All eyes will be on both leaders – and the crossbench – if voters decide to give neither of the major parties the majority they want on October 31.
