Election 2025: Albanese targets Brisbane suburbs

Anthony Albanese spent his first day on the campaign hustings in federal Labor’s graveyard state of Queensland targeting seats held by the Coalition and the Greens.

PM Anthony Albanese with crossbench member for Kennedy, Bob Katter, earlier this year. Picture: Evan Morgan

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Anthony Albanese has moved to shake off perceptions his only hope of staying in the Lodge is by stemming seat losses and governing in minority, spending his first day on the hustings in federal Labor’s graveyard state of Queensland targeting seats held by the Coalition and the Greens.

Aiming to show a second term of majority government was in reach, the Prime Minister jetted off to the home state of Peter Dutton straight after calling the election for May 3.

No one is expecting Queensland to be the main game in the campaign, with the election to be decided by how many seats the Coalition wins from Labor in NSW and Victoria.

Some of the more optimistic Labor figures claim the party has a chance of winning three seats in the Sunshine State.

Mr Albanese arrived in Brisbane on Friday afternoon and will campaign in target seats on Saturday.

It’s a big call, given many Labor and Coalition MPs believe there will be little change in the state from the last election, when Mr Albanese’s team won just six out of 30 seats.

Labor campaigners say suburban Brisbane is the party’s hope in Queensland, instead of trying to win over blue collar workers in the coal-dependent electorates of Flynn, Capricornia and Herbert.

Mr Albanese will be attempting to win back Kevin Rudd’s old seat of Griffith, which is held by Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather on a 10.5 per cent ­margin.

Labor considers itself an outside chance of winning the outer-suburban Bonner.

There is also the unlikely dream of knocking off Peter Dutton in his own seat of Dickson, held on a margin of just 1.7 per cent.

The former swing seat – before Mr Dutton entered parliament in 2001 – is being contested for a third time by disability advocate Ali France.

Winning Dickson would take a ruthless personal campaign against Mr Dutton.

Peter Dutton with Queensland Premier David Crisafulli last December. Picture: Supplied

Mr Albanese began on Friday by accusing the Liberal leader of mimicking US President Donald Trump.

“We live in the greatest country on earth, and we do not need to copy from any other nation to make Australia even better and stronger. We only need to trust in our values and back our people,” Mr Albanese said, referring to Mr Dutton’s plans to “sack” up to 41,000 public servants. “There are a range of ideas that have been borrowed from others. We need the Australian way.”

The one regional seat Labor is gunning for is north Queensland’s Leichhardt, with Mr Albanese seeing an opportunity due to the retirement of popular Liberal National MP Warren Entsch.

The seat is reliant on tourism jobs so there is a bigger appetite for strong climate change and environmental policies than other parts of regional Queensland.

The 33 seats to watch at the 2025 federal election

Labor’s primary vote in Queensland at the last election was just 27 per cent.

Mr Albanese will be competing for attention in Brisbane on Saturday with Greens leader Adam Bandt, who will be joining a rally in the city aimed at “blocking Dutton forming government”.

The rhetoric from the Greens will not help perceptions – strongly denied by Labor – that a second term Albanese government would be in alliance with the far-left party.

“Keeping Brisbane Green keeps Peter Dutton out. Voting Greens across Brisbane is the way to stop Peter Dutton,” Mr Bandt said.

“The Greens will keep Dutton out and get Labor to act on the cost of living, housing and climate crises.

“Peter Dutton is bringing Trump-style politics to Australia, and the Greens will stop him.”