Albanese to use Palaszczuk’s ‘template’ to win Qld

Anthony Albanese will use Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s leadership as a ‘template’ for winning Queensland after the party’s disastrous 2019 campaign.

Anthony Albanese watches Annastacia Palaszczuk as she speaks during the official opening of Woolworths’ new distribution centre in Heathwood. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Anthony Albanese will use Labor premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s leadership as a “template” for winning Queensland after the party’s disastrous 2019 campaign resulted in the ALP’s primary vote in the coal-rich state collapsing to 26.7 per cent.

With the Prime Minister due to call the election within days, Mr Albanese has hit the hustings in the state’s southeast corner acknowledging “we need to do better in Queensland”.

Labor holds just six of Queensland’s 30 federal electorates, a sharp contrast to the success of the party at a state level, where the ALP has been in power for 28 of the past 33 years.

“I’ve been a friend of the Premier for a long period of time, I worked with (Ms Palaszczuk) when we were both infrastructure ministers for our respective governments,” Mr Albanese said.

“But I’ve also seen what Premier Palaszczuk has presided over as a bit of a template for the way forward for federal Labor.”

Asked if he planned to visit a coal mine during the impending election campaign, the Labor leader did not specify.

“I’ll be visiting lots of places during the campaign, lots of places,” he said.

“I’m here at a distribution centre, visited a coal mine, visited lots of other resources sectors, and I’ll be out and about each and every day campaigning.

“And I’ll spend substantial time in Queensland.”

To succeed in Queensland Mr Albanese will have to win back workers in the resource-dependent state, who turned their backs on Labor in 2019 over perceptions the party was against coal, without alienating progressive voters in Brisbane.

An exclusive Newspoll conducted for The Australian shows Labor’s primary vote falling three points to 38 per cent with the Coalition improving a point to 36 per cent.

Labor’s loss of support appears to have gone mostly to the Greens, which picked up two points to 10 per cent.

Mr Albanese said he was “worried about the poll on polling day” when asked if Labor was losing ground to the Greens in Australia’s capital cities.

During his visit, Mr Albanese committed $200 million to upgrade the Bruce Highway between North Brisbane and the Morton Bay region.

“Our commitment that we‘ll be making today is one part of … improving productivity, reducing travel times and also … improving road safety,” he said.