Annastacia ‘Palaszczuk pensioners rewarded border action’

The loss of at least three Liberal National Party seats has been ­attributed to the high proportion of senior voters in those electorate.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk rolls her sleeves up and gets back to work. Picture: Liam Kidston.

The loss of at least three Liberal National Party seats has been ­attributed to the high proportion of senior voters in those electorates, with many grateful for Annastacia Palaszczuk’s handling of the pandemic and fearful of what opening state borders would do.

Dubbed “Palaszczuk’s pensioners”, Labor sources before the election campaign said the party was hopeful of winning the support of older voters off the back of the Premier’s success in dealing with COVID-19.

The results at the polling booths indicate they may have been right. The electorates of Caloundra, Pumicestone and Hervey Bay swung strongly to Labor and are likely to be on the government’s side of the chamber in parliament. At least six more seats remain in doubt as counting continues.

The Sunshine Coast seats of Nicklin and Glass House are going down to the wire, with Labor leading in Nicklin after a swing of more than 5 per cent.

On the Gold Coast the electorates of Burleigh, Coomera and Currumbin remain too close to call, but the LNP is ahead in all three. Announcing she would step aside as leader, Deb Frecklington took “full responsibility” for the loss but attributed the defeat in part to the virus.

Griffith University politics expert Paul Williams said the issues of border closures and the senior vote were “one and the same” and that it appeared a “grateful, silent majority” had backed Ms Palaszczuk’s handling of the virus.

“I’ve called it the gratitude vote all along,” Dr Williams said.

“We were probably somewhat bamboozled or thrown by what we now know was a very noisy minority in tourism and small business and others, from Scott Morrison down to Deb Frecklington, who said the border closures would be the death knell of the Labor government.

“Clearly a majority of Queenslanders didn’t agree with that and we saw that reflected in the poll. They’re grateful, especially the older Queenslanders who haven’t got a stake in small business, that Queensland didn’t become Victoria.”

Dr Williams said Labor shaped the election as a referendum on borders, leadership and the economy, and Ms Palaszczuk was able to convince voters she was the better option on all three fronts.