Queensland election: Parties’ pitch to pensioners on health as grey army grows

Annastacia Palaszczuk and Deb Frecklington have taken their election pitch to Queensland’s pensioners, unveiling health policies targeted at winning the senior vote.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Bribie Island on Monday. Picture: Getty Images

Queensland Labor Premier ­Annastacia Palaszczuk and LNP ­Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington have taken their election pitch to the state’s pensioners, unveiling health policies targeted at winning the substantial senior vote.

Labor insiders have told The Australian the party is hopeful of winning over older, traditionally conservative voters who have warmed to the party because of the government’s success in keeping coronavirus numbers down.

They have dubbed the cohort “Palaszczuk’s pensioners”, believing they could swing the October 31 election in Labor’s favour.

Ms Palaszczuk visited Bribie ­Island, near Brisbane, on Monday to unveil her plan to build a series of satellite hospitals closer to semi-urban populations.

Mr Frecklington targeted Hervey Bay, three hours north of Brisbane, where she met with seniors stranded on the public hospital waitlists and announced a $300m pledge to clear a surgery backlog.

Both regions are known for their large retiree populations.

Bribie Island is in the marginal electorate of Pumicestone, held by outgoing LNP MP Simone Wilson on a margin of just 0.8 per cent and has been singled out as a crucial pick-up for Labor to cover expected losses in the regions.

Ms Palaszczuk’s $265m promise to build new satellite community hospitals — all of them in Labor or marginal electorates — on Bribie Island, in the Redlands, Brisbane’s southside, Pine Rivers, the Gold Coast, Ipswich, and Caboolture — would give residents there access to healthcare closer to where they live.

None of the new hospitals would be located outside the southeast corner, but Ms Palaszczuk said there would be more to come if the scheme succeeded.

“These new satellite hospitals will also help provide the healthcare services families need in our rapidly growing outer-urban areas,” the Premier said.

“This initiative is an important part of our ongoing economic recovery plan and will support up to 768 jobs during construction.”

Ms Palaszczuk said the commitment would be funded through borrowings.

On Sunday night, Ms Frecklington flew to Hervey Bay to sandbag the electorate held by ­retiring LNP stalwart Ted Sorensen on a 9.1 per cent margin, and now contested by LNP candidate Steve Coleman. She appeared without Scott Morrison, who remained in Brisbane after two days campaigning by her side.

Ms Frecklington joined a group of seniors to discuss their waitlist woes, with many telling the Opposition Leader they and their family members had spent months in agony while waiting for surgery.

She said surgery waiting lists had grown by about 26,000 in the past five years, and the backlog in the Hervey Bay hospital has increased by 51 per cent since Ms Palaszczuk became Premier in 2015. The $300m would be used to fast-track the surgeries of about 56,000 patients throughout Queensland by paying private hospitals to do the operations.

“Health all across Queensland, but (particularly) in regional areas like this in the Wide Bay, is very important,” Ms Frecklington said.

“People choose to live in ­regional Queensland because it’s beautiful (and) they deserve to have good healthcare.”

The retiree vote is likely to play an increasingly important role in this and future elections as the state’s population ages. According to the Queensland Statistician’s Office, by 2049 one in five Queenslanders are projected to be aged 65 years or over. The cohort is particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, which has mostly killed older people and those with weakened immune systems.

Labor strategists have told The Australian that concerns about the spread of the virus were paramount for older voters, who were in favour of the Premier’s hard line on border closures.

They hope the issue will sway voters in marginal electorates, even in traditional LNP heartlands on the Gold and Sunshine coasts.