Queensland election results 2017: LNP merger cost Nicholls the election
WITH a Labor majority government appearing less certain, Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls has challenged the Premier to cement her “no deals” pledge.
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OPPOSITION Leader Tim Nicholls has called on Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to cement her commitment to Queenslanders that she won’t do any deals with crossbench or minor MPs if she falls short of majority government.
As counting continues today, the LNP leader goaded Ms Palaszczuk to repeat her “key” campaign promise to go into opposition rather than gather together a minority government.
“Annastacia Palaszczuk and Labor are yet to get to 47 seats, and with recounts being undertaken across the state, this election is not yet over,” Mr Nicholls said in Toowoomba.
“And the real question that Annastacia Palaszczuk and Labor have so far failed to answer is, if they don’t get to 47 seats, will they do a deal with crossbenchers and minor parties, or will Annastacia Palaszczuk keep her word and go into opposition rather than be a minority government?”
Ms Palaszczuk has no media scheduled today, but said on Sunday she was confident she would form majority government.
At that media conference, she wouldn’t repeat her “no deals” commitment not to work with anyone on the cross bench to form government.
Mr Nicholls said Queenslanders deserved to know whether she remained behind her promise now.
The Courier-Mail predicts Labor will win 47 seats to retain government, while the LNP will get 40, Katter’s Australian Party 3 and the Greens, One Nation and Independent one apiece.
Despite not being within reach of the 47 seats to form majority government in his own right, Mr Nicholls said he was “still in this hunt”.
He said he had always said he was open to dealing with whatever cross bench Queenslanders delivered, including the Greens.
“I’ve been consistent all the way through,” he said.
“We will respect the will of the people and we will work with the parliamentarians that the people of Queenslane elect who support our policies and our agenda.”
There was good news for Labor this afternoon, with Margaret Strelow saying she was out of the race to claim Rockhampton as an Independent.
Ms Strelow, who quit the Labor Party to run in the seat, said she expected her old party would now claim the electorate as preferences are distributed.
Meanwhile, former Queensland Nationals senator Ron Boswell said Mr Nicholls would be premier already if the Liberal and National parties had remained separate entities.
The Nationals stalwart would not be drawn on whether the LNP should now split, but said there should be a “very strong debate” about the issue.
“I think Tim Nicholls would have been premier of Queensland now ... if you had two parties working together, one trying to pick up the bush vote and Tim Nicholls campaigning for the vote in the southeast corner,” he told ABC Radio this morning.
Originally published as Queensland election results 2017: LNP merger cost Nicholls the election
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