LNP worried that local by-election has state ramifications

The last time a Queensland Labor government won a seat off the opposition in a by-election was 1951.

2020 LNP candidate Laura Gerber at Currumbin Beach on the Gold Coast. Picture: Glenn Hunt

The Liberal National Party’s Currumbin candidate, Laura Gerber, is all that stands between Queensland Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and unstoppable momentum heading into the October state election.

If Labor defies history and wins the Gold Coast seat from the LNP at next Saturday’s by-election, LNP insiders fear the victory will give Ms Palaszczuk an enormous psychological boost ahead of the main game on October 31.

The last time a Queensland Labor government won a seat off the opposition in a by-election was 1951, but strategists from both major parties predict the Currumbin contest will be close.

Veteran LNP MP Jann Stuckey held the southern Gold Coast electorate on a narrow margin of 3.31 per cent before her sudden resignation in late January, citing depression and bullying by party colleagues. She accused LNP headquarters of parachuting in a Brisbane blow-in in the form of Ms Gerber, a former Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions prosecutor, over her and her local branch’s preferred candidate, a Gold Coast barrister. Ms Stuckey’s choice was rejected by the party’s internal vetting process.

Ms Gerber, who says she’s raised her children in the electorate for two years and was born and married on the Gold Coast, brushed off Ms Stuckey’s criticisms. “I don’t even have to push it to the back of my mind because it’s not important, people are not worried about it. What people are talking to me about is the rising crime rate, congestion on the M1 (motorway from Brisbane), hospital waiting lists and our education standards … so that’s what I’m focused on.”

Ms Gerber said the LNP had promised to build a second M1 to reduce congestion on the motorway, had committed to a public register of sex offenders, and planned tougher laws to crack down on drive-by shootings.

Labor’s candidate, Kaylee Campradt, a former campaigner with the Queensland Council of Unions, said Ms Stuckey’s intervention could not be ignored. “I think voters want someone who is connected to the community and is one of us,” she said.

“I’m offended they (the LNP) think they’ve got it so locked up that they can plonk somebody in that joined the party in December and ignore the wishes of the local people — that’s offensive.”

Ms Campradt said she had grown up and lived most of her life on the Gold Coast.