Labor to target Peter Dutton’s seat of Dickson at federal election

Labor will be targeting Peter Dutton’s seat of Dickson at the next election, warns Opposition Finance Spokesman Jim Chalmers.

Labor will be targeting Peter Dutton’s seat of Dickson at the next election, warns Opposition Finance Spokesman Jim Chalmers, who says Queensland will be central to the election of a Shorten government.

Mr Chalmers, a Queensland frontbencher, said there were a “number of Coalition MPs who are vulnerable” in Queensland and Labor would throw everything at unseating the Home Affairs Minister.

Mr Dutton, the Coalition’s most senior Queenslander, holds the outer Brisbane seat on a margin of 1.7 per cent.

“We have got a great candidate in Dickson, Ali France. A terrific local person and we are throwing everything we can at Dickson,” Mr Chalmers told ABC radio.

“But not just Dickson. Next door in Petrie and right up and down the coast. I think there are a number of Coalition MPs who are vulnerable because Queenslanders are sick of the cuts and chaos and they don’t think that (Scott) Morrison is in touch with the concerns people have north of the border.”

Mr Chalmers said Labor needed to be more competitive in Queensland, noting the party won a majority of seats in the state when Kevin Rudd took power from John Howard in 2007.

Labor holds nine out of 30 seats in the state.

“We do need to be much more competitive in Queensland than we have been,” Mr Chalmers said.

“The last time we won government from opposition in 2007 we actually won a majority of Queensland seats and that was important to that particular victory and we need to do really well here again.”

Bill Shorten will today continue his “Bill bus” blitz through the sunshine state.