Queensland election: Multicultural groups unite against One Nation and LNP

A coalition of multicultural leaders is warning against voting for One Nation or any party preferencing it.

Queensland Chinese Forum honorary president Peter Low, who has placed ads urging voters not to back parties that don’t put One Nation last. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

A powerful coalition of multi­cultural leaders is blitzing Queensland’s foreign-language newspapers with advertisements warning voters against backing One Nation or any party preferencing the minor party — in a shot at the Liberal National Party.

The LNP’s plan to put Labor last on how-to-vote cards statewide — ­effectively preferencing One ­Nation — has the community leaders concerned Pauline Hanson’s party’s hold on power will increase from its current single seat in Queensland.

Party insiders say the ad ­barrage could influence burgeoning multicultural communities in Labor-held marginal seats in ­Brisbane, ­including Mansfield (1.62 per cent) and ­Aspley (1.17 per cent), which the LNP needs to win to secure ­majority government at Saturday’s election.

The LNP needs a net gain of nine seats to oust the Palaszczuk government without having to rely on deals with crossbenchers.

At last year’s federal election, a backlash from multicultural communities over issues such as protection of religious freedoms contributed to Labor’s failure to pick up Sydney seats it had targeted, including the marginal ­Liberal seat of Banks.

The One Nation preferencing decision is causing consternation in Queensland’s most multicultural seat, the safe Labor southern Brisbane seat of Stretton, held by MP Duncan Pegg on a near-10 per cent margin and contested by LNP candidate Peter Zhuang.

An advertisement run in the Indian News in Queensland.

How-to-vote cards for Mr Zhuang, who is of Chinese ­heritage, put One Nation candidate Alexey Chekhunov second, ­followed by the Greens candidate Andrea Wildin, and then Mr Pegg. More than half of Stretton’s residents were born overseas, including 45 per cent from non-­English-speaking countries.

The advertisements were placed by Peter Low, the honorary president of the Queensland Chinese Forum, and signed by ten community leaders, including Aboriginal elder Robert Anderson, Queensland Multicultural Council president Umesh Chandra and Islamic Council of Queensland president Habib Jamal.

“We, the undersigned, hereby strongly advocate and request Queensland’s Cross-Cultural Community to put the candidate for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party LAST on the ballot paper of the forthcoming Queensland state election due to their history of creating disharmony and ­divisiveness within our Multi­cultural Society,” the advertisements reads.

“The candidate that gives preference to (One Nation) should be put 2nd LAST on the ballot paper.”

A Labor poster that defies the Premier’s edict

The ads are running in Indian, Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean newspapers and online media across Queensland, but particularly in Brisbane’s suburbs.

Mr Low said it was “very, very disappointing” that Mr Zhuang in Stretton had made the preferencing decision. “He might not get the voters from the multicultural community,” Mr Low said.

The community leader is a former life member of the Nationals who quit the party after it preferenced One Nation in some seats in 1998, helping the party to win 11 electorates in Queensland and finish second in 23 seats after preferences were distributed.

Mr Jamal said the LNP’s preferencing decision had driven the group to enter the election fray.

“We are pretty upset by the antics of One Nation,” Mr Jamal said. “They’ve been pretty anti-us as a community, anti-Islam, anti-immigration, anti-Asian, we felt it important to make a stand.

“(If One Nation wins more seats) it gives Pauline Hanson more power to continue to do what she’s doing … she’s alienating us from the mainstream.”

The LNP did not respond to questions from The Australian.

Senator Hanson, the federal One Nation leader, said the advertisements would have no impact on seats the party could win, such as Cook in far north Queensland or Keppel in central Queensland.

“You know how I’ve felt about multiculturalism it’s dividing our nation,” Senator Hanson said. “This will have zero impact. If we thought we had any hope of winning a seat in Sunnybank (in the Brisbane Labor-held multicultural electorate of Toohey), maybe.”

Mr Pegg said the fact the LNP was preferencing One Nation for the first time ever in Stretton, and neighbouring Toohey, had been a hot topic of discussion in the seats.

“As the most multicultural seat in the state, people certainly don’t have a very high opinion about Pauline Hanson or One Nation given the history of derogatory comments directed to the Asian and Muslim communities amongst others,” Mr Pegg said.

Despite Labor’s how-to-vote cards putting One Nation last across the state and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk insisting she would “read the Riot Act” to any rogue candidates, there is still a rearguard campaign run by unions and Labor backers urging voters through campaign material to “put the LNP last”.

Signs have most recently been spotted in the Gold Coast LNP-held seat of Bonney. A car topped with an official Labor corflute reading “Annastacia Palaszczuk and Ash Borg, working together for Queensland” also carried a sign saying “Put the LNP last”.