Queensland election result shows the importance of leadership

The one lesson the LNP in Queensland and political parties everywhere should draw from Saturday’s humiliating drubbing is that you can’t just run a smiling and pleasant political cardboard cutout from central casting as leader unable to articulate a competing vision or capitalise on incompetence, who thinks they just have to turn up on the day and expect to win. It’s not a winning strategy. Ditto Victoria’s Liberal opposition.

Jim Ball, Narrabeen, NSW

Annastacia Palaszczuk has survived in Queensland due in large part to COVID-19 which enabled her to display strong leadership and virtually make the disastrous state of the economy disappear as an election factor. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews may yet save himself and his government thanks to the people of Victoria accepting draconian restrictions imposed to overcome a disaster that Andrews was responsible for. He can also thank a quasi-inquiry which totally lacked robust investigation with a report due for release just days before Christmas. The bottom line is that Victoria suffered most from COVID-19 when they should not have and the largely overlooked fact that 800 people died prematurely. I would like to pour scorn on those who have said that the 800 who died were pretty close to death anyway. Try telling that to their surviving loved ones who will not have them around the table this Christmas.

Peter D. Surkitt, Sandringham, Vic

For almost a year now we have seen an Australia that, as a 73 year old, I would have hoped never to see. We have some politicians on obvious “power trips” closing state borders, locking fellow Australians in their homes like prisoners, police issuing fines of thousands of dollars to people, for their own good of course. Not to mention Australians in panic needlessly clearing supermarket shelves of goods without a thought for their fellow Aussies with the cost of many goods going through the roof for no other reason than the producers/suppliers can.

I wonder how much different things may have been if, instead of thinking state premiers would work as one with the Commonwealth, the PM had instead negotiated that all states and territories be treated as one single state during the pandemic. This would have allowed travel and commerce throughout the country but put in place efficient policies to protect the elderly and all people who are more susceptible to infection and allow the country, its businesses and the economy to continue normally. Worryingly, now that this country’s leaders have had a taste of how easy it is to achieve total control, I guess we can expect it to happen more often, whenever the “need” arises?

P. Edwards, Safety Bay, WA

Scott Morrison has been criticised for not standing up to state premiers over border closures. He has also been accused of lacking the courage to launch a High Court challenge over the issue. Personally I think Morrison has erred on the side of caution in order to avoid open warfare with some hard-nosed individual premiers but also not running the risk of losing in the High Court. As it turns out it looks like Morrison read the tea-leaves well. I suspect he guessed the public would be behind premiers taking a hard-nosed approach to border closures. The results of the Queensland election tend to prove this.

The downside, of course, is the negative effect of premiers’ decisions on the economy and the Federal purse. It’s the Commonwealth that bears much of the financial brunt of these closures; states have the easy part. But, as it’s turned out, the people are happy so the PM’s decision to ride the wave on border closures has paid off so far. But this saga has a long and very expensive road to travel.

John George, Terrigal, NSW

It’s obvious that the LNP campaign team in Queensland didn’t go to the Land Warfare School for tactical training. The decision to target Jackie Trad and unseat her by preferencing the Greens is hard to fathom. Trad was a divisive person with obvious ambitions to be premier. In her role as deputy she was often destabilising to the Labor team. Palaszczuk would have given her right arm if she could have thrown Trad overboard. Instead the LNP rather stupidly did it for her. And for what? A net gain of zero.

The new Green member is just another Labor vote of a different colour. The LNP were better off with Trad in the parliament.

Graham Wheeler, Gulliver, Qld