Coronavirus: Voters have news for you, Annastacia Palaszczuk; they’re not happy

Growing voter anger over the slow lifting of travel restrictions in Queensland threatens to become an electoral negative for Labor.

Newsagent Tony Callanan. Picture: Glenn Hunt

The Palaszczuk government may be travelling better in the polls than its federal Labor colleagues but the growing anger over the slow lifting of travel restrictions threatens to become an electoral negative in some seats north of Brisbane.

Caboolture newsagent Tony Callanan, whose business is in the federal electorate of Longman and serves suburbs that make up some marginal state seats, said politics was not a common topic of conversation with his customers.

“The only issue I have is that the federal medical officer, Brendan Murphy, says one thing (about how the spread of the virus should be tackled) and Jeannette Young, the Queensland health officer, says another,” he said. “You don’t know who to believe.”

Annastacia Palaszczuk is the first Premier whose handling of the crisis will face an electoral test, with Queenslanders set to go to the polls on October 31.

Burpengary nursery manager John Richards said the prevailing view about the state Labor government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic was frustration.

He said many customers at his Garden Gems nursery had one question: when could they start travelling again? Mr Richards said people understood that measures needed to be taken to stop the spread of the virus “but they are frustrated”.

“A lot of elderly people come shopping for plants and they’ve got caravans and they want to travel, especially with winter coming on, and it’s frustrating for them,” he said.

“I’m frustrated. I’ve got a caravan, too, and we are booked into a caravan park in Cairns in July and would like to know whether we can travel.”

He said he had seen some commentary suggesting the reluctance to lift the ban on cross-border travel was all about boosting the government’s chances at the coming election.

“But the people I talk to don’t see it as a political plus for her,” Mr Richards said.

“They see it as a black mark.”