Proof election will be won or lost in the regions

Annastacia Palaszczuk’s decision yesterday to fly to north Queensland again and announce a so-called “second Bruce Highway” plan shows Labor is struggling in critical regional seats.

Often in election campaigns, where politicians go and what policies they unveil says much more about how they’re travelling than the words that spill out of their mouths.

That’s why Annastacia Palaszczuk’s decision yesterday to fly to north Queensland again and announce a so-called “second Bruce Highway” plan shows Labor is struggling in critical regional seats.

This was a high-risk policy for Palaszczuk, full of hypocrisy and holes.

Editorial: Palaszczuk now following pacesetter Deb’s lead

Labor has spent the past three weeks denigrating LNP Leader Deb Frecklington’s plan to four-lane the Bruce Highway from Gympie to Cairns over the next 15 years.

It was a “highway hoax”, they reckoned, because the federal government hadn’t committed the funding.

It wasn’t necessary, they insisted, because there was already a long-term plan to upgrade the Bruce.

But clearly that strategy hasn’t worked. So Palaszczuk has been forced to pivot just as early voting begins.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk during a press conference at a Bruce Highway upgrade construction site, south of Townsville, on Wednesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Unfurled from all the flowery rhetoric, the Premier’s “second Bruce” announcement amounts to not much more than a decent upgrade of some existing roads.

And it contains the same funding arrangement as Frecklington’s proposal under which the federal government would have to pay the bulk of the bill.

But Labor will be hoping that these details are lost on people and the policy will neutralise the issue. Frecklington was also in the north yesterday announcing a curfew plan for kids.

The controversial idea won’t play well in inner Brisbane where there’s few seats for the LNP to win.

But it will appeal where the curfew would be applied in Townsville and Cairns, where crime is a concern and there’s marginal seats up for grabs.

So what does it all mean?

This election will likely be won or lost in the regions and remains tighter than some have led themselves to believe.