Election 2022: Still feeling the heat of 2019, leaders bask in Sunshine State

Queensland has captured the bulk of the attention of the political leaders during the second week of the campaign.

scott Morrison campaigning in Longman on Thursday. Picture: Jason Edwards

Queensland has captured the bulk of the attention of political leaders during the second week of the campaign, with Anthony ­Albanese’s five-day visit to the Sunshine State echoing Bill Shorten’s bus tour in 2019.

Since flying in last Friday, the Labor leader has spent time in the state’s southeast, visiting the electorates of Hinkler, Brisbane, Dickson, Griffith and Rankin, as well as Leichardt in the far north.

Scott Morrison spent Thursday in the ultra-marginal electorate of Longman, in Brisbane’s north, after heading to Queensland for the debate on Wednesday night.

Barnaby Joyce has spent a week in central Queensland to shore up the Nationals electorates there.

Griffith University political scientist Paul Williams said the extended length of Mr Albanese’s visit was unusual and a sign Labor believed there was still a chance of picking up seats in Queensland.

“Staying in one state for a long period is quite unusual, but putting so much value on Queensland is not,” Dr Williams said.

“The only place Scott Morrison spent more time in outside of NSW in 2019 was Queensland.”

Dr Williams said quality time alone was not enough to guarantee voter support, as Mr Shorten found out in 2019 despite spending nine days straight in Queensland on a 1400km bus tour.

Labor won just 26 per cent of the primary vote in Queensland in 2019 and lost two seats to the Coalition.

Dr Williams said he believed Queensland would not play such a strong role in determining the election this year; however, a horror start to the campaign for Labor had increased the importance of ensuring it held seats in the state.

“We always say that Queensland is the key battleground but we were saying that that wouldn’t necessarily be true this time,” he said.

“There’s no doubt that Albanese can win government without making great inroads in Queensland.”

 

If Mr Albanese’s visit is any gauge of where Labor thinks it can win seats, it was the three days spent in the Coalition-held electorate of Leichhardt that was most telling.

Longtime MP Warren Entsch holds the seat with a 4.2 per cent margin after suffering a rare ­primary vote swing against him in 2019.

Dr Williams said he would not be surprised if Labor walked away with no new seats in Queensland and that if it did win one, it would likely be Longman.

The seat is held by the LNP’s Terry Young but Longman voters have been fickle in recent ­elections.

Mr Joyce focused his time on Nationals-held seats in central Queensland, particularly the Gladstone-based seat of Flynn (8.6 per cent), which has been identified as a target by Labor.

Incumbent MP Ken O’Dowd is retiring and his possible successor, Colin Boyce, is facing a tough challenge from Gladstone Labor mayor Matt Burnett.

Mr Joyce’s hands-on visit included auctioning off his Akubra for $6100 for charity at the Easter weekend and a series of funding announcements ranging from telehealth services to regional road upgrades.

Dr Williams said the Coalition having two party leaders was advantageous during a campaign because it enabled them to interact with more voters.

“It’s particularly (important) in a decentralised state like Queensland,” Dr Williams said.

“It also helps in NSW, which has a strong divide between rural and city voters.”