Queensland needs more choice

The results in Saturday morning’s Newspoll are very different for Queensland Premier Steven Miles and Opposition Leader David Crisafulli, whose Liberal National Party leads by 55 per cent to the Labor government’s 45 per cent after preferences. But there is a shared message for both. Whatever party strategists tell them, they must explain to voters why their policies are reason to elect them on October 26. And neither is doing it now. That Labor is light on for good reasons is made clear by its adding a scare campaign to its strategy of stunts and spending. As Lydia Lynch reported in The Australian on Friday, Mr Miles and his frontbench, plus Labor union allies, are claiming Mr Crisafulli has “plans to legislate control of women’s bodies” if the Coalition wins. To which the Opposition Leader flatly states that if elected his government will not change existing legislation and will continue to fund the government’s existing pregnancy termination plan.

For Mr Miles to run an abortion scare campaign comes close to moral bankruptcy, which only adds to the way the government is beggaring the state to win an election. The reasons why Labor is so desperate to use this cynical scare are clear. The government’s 30 per cent primary vote, unchanged since March, demonstrates Mr Miles’s big-spending budget and related giveaways did not deliver. Fifty-cent flat fares on public transport appeal to people who think riding is ethically superior to driving. The proposal for state-owned fuel stations and a trial to cap daily price increases is a sure thing only with voters who believe government can out-manage the market. And the state government’s $1000 energy-cost rebates for every household is profligacy not policy. None of this disguises the fact that, overall, Mr Miles appears focused on the election, not the next-term need to confront public sector net debt, on track to rise from $56bn last financial year to $116bn in 2027-28.

None of this gives Mr Crisafulli a free pass. Given the favourable polls, it is a mistake to not contest Labor’s profligate spending policies head-on. Agreeing to adopt them, as was the case with train fares, is worse. To claim a mandate, Mr Crisafulli must set out what he will do in office and how he will pay for it. But so far he is leaving it to Labor to lose the election rather than making the case why the LNP should win it.

Mr Crisafulli’s campaign message is “right plan for Queensland” – but what is it? When The Australian asked him and 10 colleagues about plans for their portfolios, none was forthcoming; rather, his media team responded to written questions with quotes attributed to frontbenchers.

With the election a bare five weeks away, voters know what the LNP says it will do – “fewer ambulances ramped, fewer victims of crime, more homes built faster and living costs driven down” – but not whether it has costed clues on how to. And the voters know it – as Newspoll reports, 47 per cent of its survey are “not confident” the LNP is ready to govern. Governing follows campaigning, and for Mr Crisafulli to claim a mandate on election night he must set out now what he would do and how he would pay for it if he wins.