'No help': Voters finish off PM's fight with Queensland Premier

Labor has claimed a victory against Prime Minister Scott Morrison in the Queensland state election by saying his campaign visit to the state helped his own party lose.

The swing toward Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk led her federal colleagues to argue they could build on her gains to reverse the battering they took across the state at the last federal election.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk victorious on Saturday night.Credit: Getty Images

But federal Coalition ministers said the state result reflected the advantages of incumbency for all premiers and the lack of personal approval for Liberal National Party leader Deb Frecklington.

Mr Morrison's allies also said the result would not change the federal government stance on opening state borders as soon as possible, even though the Premier's border controls helped her win.

“Scott Morrison started an argument with Annastacia Palaszczuk and the voters finished it in her favour,” said Labor Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers, who holds the federal seat of Rankin in Brisbane.

“He was no help to Frecklington in the end and may have even harmed her chances by making Palaszczuk look even stronger.

“Where the federal government’s premature JobKeeper cuts hit hardest, in places the LNP targeted like Cairns, we actually got a swing to us.

“This was overwhelmingly a positive result for the Premier but the Prime Minister can hardly pretend he wasn’t here for a week and had nothing to do with it.”

Mr Morrison campaigned in Queensland from October 10 to 14, including a visit to Neumann Steel Fabrication in Currumbin, defence contractor Rheinmetall in Redbank, recycler Visy in Murrarie, Meridian Helicopters in Townsville and Australian Reef Fish Trading in Portsmith, near Cairns.

One cabinet minister dismissed Labor's claims on the grounds that polls showed Ms Frecklington had a negative approval rating and the result “could have been worse” without the federal help.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison campaigned hard in Queensland for the state election. Credit: Lydia Lynch

Another federal cabinet minister said the result showed the advantage of incumbency and the gains for strong leaders during the pandemic, saying these factors would help Mr Morrison at the next federal election.

"The result seriously helps us. It is not what we wanted but that is what will happen," he said.

Ms Palaszczuk imposed border controls despite criticism from Mr Morrison and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, using their complaints to strengthen position at a time when Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was containing a second wave in his state.

"Daniel Andrews made her look good," the minister said. "It all went into the narrative of the strong leader."

Another minister said Ms Palaszczuk had won in part because the full impact of her border controls and other measures was yet to be felt while the federal government paid the JobKeeper and coronavirus supplement allowances.

"Annastacia Palaszczuk has been able to do what she's done on the basis of the generosity of the taxpayer," he said.

"If there was no JobKeeper, people would be screaming for the borders to be opened."

Federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese made no visit to Queensland as the election neared.

Voters deserted Pauline Hanson's One Nation, halving the party's primary vote to 6.9 per cent in a trend that delivered a bigger gain for Labor than the LNP.

Senator Hanson's chief of staff, James Ashby, blamed the media for not giving the party more attention.

While federal Labor MPs were heartened by the result, they acknowledged the need to change their policies to match Ms Palaszczuk's gains in a state where they lost ground at the last federal election.

Labor policies on negative gearing, franking credits, small business and family trusts are under review or being shelved, with some using the state result to press for them to be permanently abandoned.

"We've got to junk a lot of those policies," said one MP.

The latest results showed a 5.2 per cent swing to Labor and a 1.9 per cent swing to the LNP.

Federal Labor environment spokeswoman Terri Butler said the Queensland Premier had “resisted the bullying” from the Morrison government in trying to get her to open the state border sooner.

“She has come under pressure from everyone from the Prime Minister to Peter Dutton down, to renege on her position on borders,” Ms Butler told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.

“This is a Premier who has stood up against that bullying, who has insisted on listening to that health advice, and as a consequence has kept people safe ... The Prime Minister came to Queensland, spent a week here effectively telling Queenslanders how to suck eggs, and they didn’t like it.

“We don’t like it when southerners come up here and tell us how to live our lives.”

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