Queensland election 2017: Preferences desert Annastacia Palaszczuk

ANNASTACIA Palaszczuk’s pathway to secure the 47 seats needed to form majority government just became further obstructed, writes Steven Wardill.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk at Everton Park State High School during the Queensland Election campaign. Picture: AAP Image/Darren England

ANNASTACIA Palaszczuk’s pathway to secure the 47 seats needed to form majority government just became further obstructed.

The Courier-Mail Galaxy Poll demonstrates how Labor is being stripped of seats in the volatile north but not replacing them in the southeast corner.

The Townsville electorate of Mundingburra, which has decided who governs Queensland before, is a textbook example.

Political greenhorn Coralee O’Rourke won the seat with Greens and a Palmer United Party support in 2015 as angry voters numbered every box on their ballot paper.

Now the same is happening to oust O’Rourke.

On the campaign trail this week. Annastacia Palaszczuk with Prep students at Bardon State School. (AAP Image / Darren England)

Ms Palaszczuk with federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten in Maryborough. (AAP Image/Darren England)

Compulsory preferencing means votes from One Nation and Katter’s Australian Party are flowing to the LNP.

And the Tim Nicholls-led team will win the seat despite one in four of their voters deserting them at this election.

The same story is being repeated across regional seats.

One Nation is stripping significant votes from the LNP and soaking up support from independents.

But where Pauline Hanson’s party finishes third, Labor loses.

And that’s a problem when marginal LNP electorates in the southeast aren’t swapping to Labor’s side of the ledger.

Ms Palaszczuk at the Maryborough RSL this week. (AAP Image/Darren England)

Glass House and Bonney, both highly marginal LNP electorates are 50:50 equations despite Labor having all the gifts of government for the past three years to seduce these seats.

On the Gold Coast in particular, where Labor is desperate for a foothold, the Palaszczuk Government is struggling to make an impact.

Labor is even fighting to resist a One Nation surge in Logan, a seat that shouldn’t even be in play.

With two weeks until polling day, Labor faces a choice.

Does Palaszczuk attempt to turn thing around in the north and hopes the southeast seats switch?

Or does she forsake the regions and try to win the southeast?

Both pathways are littered with potholes.

Originally published as Queensland election 2017: Preferences desert Annastacia Palaszczuk