Queensland Election 2017: Jackie Trad to fight for South Brisbane

DEPUTY Premier Jackie Trad’s promise to build Brisbane’s first new inner-city high school since 1963 will be central to her election fight.

NEW schools, the Adani coal mine and the explosion of inner-city apartments will be central in the fight for South Brisbane as the Deputy Premier faces an onslaught from the Greens and LNP.

Jackie Trad holds the seat by a whopping 13.8 per cent margin in the traditional Labor stronghold it has held since 1977.

But the Greens maintain they are just a few hundred votes away from winning their first state seat in an area known for its bohemian lifestyle.

Labor claims its greatest worry is the LNP, whose vote actually rose in the 2015 bloodbath that booted Campbell Newman from power.

Ms Trad will bet on the electorate’s need for a new school to deal with the burgeoning Brisbane State High, promising to build the inner-city’s first new high school since 1963 and expand precious green space.

Jackie Trad meets locals Ryan Waddington and Paula Plastic in Rotary Park in Woolloongabba. Picture: Peter Wallis

She’s also pressing the environmental credentials of the $5.4 billion Cross River Rail project, which she says will take 18,500 cars off the road, as well as the LNP’s “outlandish” promise to build a coal-fired power station in north Queensland.

“I’ve never taken my community for granted and I’ll be campaigning in South Brisbane every day, talking to people about the issues that matter to them,” Ms Trad said yesterday.

But she’ll face a backlash to the Adani mine and perceived over development in suburbs like West End, which will be driven by social scientist and Greens candidate Amy MacMahon.

Her campaign has already been raging for a year, buoyed by the party’s success at the Brisbane City Council election when Jonathan Sri won the Gabba ward.

“People feel the entire political system is broken but in South Brisbane people have an opportunity to be voting in an independent voice that can start to break that system open,” Ms MacMahon said.

The LNP’s Simon Quinn, a landscape small business owner and Gold Coast Turf Club board member, only announced his candidacy last month.

Mr Quinn didn’t return calls yesterday but has previously said Ms Trad was too busy with her transport, planning and infrastructure mega portfolio and locals didn’t know who she was.

Economist and corruption researcher Cameron Murray, who appeared as an expert witness at this year’s local government Crime and Corruption Commission hearings, will run as an independent.

Originally published as Queensland Election 2017: Jackie Trad to fight for South Brisbane