David Crisafulli claims underdog status despite Newspoll prediction of Queensland Labor wipeout
Queensland election frontrunner David Crisafulli has declared himself the underdog at next month’s state poll, despite Newspoll predicting he is on track to topple the third-term Labor government.
Queensland election frontrunner David Crisafulli has declared himself the underdog at next month’s state poll, despite Newspoll predicting he is on track to topple the third-term Labor government and deliver the Liberal National Party a clear majority.
Speaking on Monday from Townsville, home to a trio of must-win Labor-held seats, Mr Crisafulli said the election was “going to be tight” and ruled out forming a minority government with crossbench support.
“We remain firmly up against it as the underdogs but we are pushing hard for that fresh start that the state needs,” he said.
“Of the last 12 general elections in Queensland, the LNP has won one of those, so you can forgive me for not getting carried away with polling numbers. We have to win over a dozen seats, that is a huge, huge task ahead.”
The exclusive Newspoll conducted for The Weekend Australian on the eve of the campaign proper revealed the LNP had surged 10 points clear of Labor – 55 to 45 per cent after preferences.
If the predicted 8.2 per cent swing against Steven Miles’ Labor government were uniform across the state on October 26, it would deliver the LNP a comfortable majority of 55 seats in the 93-electorate parliament.
Both leaders have made cost of living a key election issue, with Mr Miles again calling on the RBA to slash interest rates on Tuesday.
“Interest rates are a blunt instrument that punish those that can least afford it the most,” he said. “The RBA should reduce interest rates as soon as they possibly can.”
Inspecting progress on the new youth detention centre in Brisbane on Monday, Mr Miles followed Mr Crisafulli in claiming election underdog status.
“Of course, we’re the underdog, you (The Australian) had a poll at the weekend didn’t you see it?” he said. “We’ve known all along that winning this election would be hard.
“What I saw was there are lots of Queenslanders who still haven’t made up their mind, lots of Queenslanders who are still to turn on to the fact that there’s an election coming.”
Labor MPs have been distancing themselves from Mr Miles and hiding their party affiliation on campaign material, but he said it was “not especially unusual”.
The Australian is aware of at least 10 examples of Labor MPs using campaign material that does not appear to show their affiliation.
While some flyers are decorated in the purple colour scheme used by Queensland’s Together Union, others show MPs against plain backgrounds with their own colour palette carrying their names and electorates but no mention of Labor.
“I think all MPs develop their own personal and local brands, but rest assured that I’m getting plenty of requests to spend time in all of our held seats, and you will see me in all of our held seats,” Mr Miles said.
“All our candidates will have some red Labor-branded signs, but it’s not unusual for them to have other signs as well.”
Mr Miles also promised to serve out the full term of the next parliament as Murrumba MP, even if his government was defeated.
“Of course, I will, but I’m not going to get into entertaining what happens if we lose, because I’m entirely focused on making sure we win,” he said.
Might as well close it: Chalmers’ big call leaves fund without a future
It’s Jim Chalmers’ big chance to put his loopy ideas about ‘reinventing capitalism’ to become a ‘values-driven’ system into practice. Labor has never really liked the Future Fund because it’s a reminder of Peter Costello’s success.
Chalmers’ $230bn Future Funnel for favoured projects
Jim Chalmers is overhauling the investment mandate of the Future Fund to drive capital into Labor’s agenda, in a major shift in the role of the sovereign wealth fund established by the Howard government.