Queensland election: Potential kingmaker Robbie Katter ready to wheel and deal
Potential kingmaker Robbie Katter will have a wishlist of regional infrastructure funding if the major parties need his support to form minority government after Saturday’s Queensland election.
Potential kingmaker Robbie Katter will have a wishlist of regional infrastructure funding if the major parties need his support to form minority government after Saturday’s Queensland election.
On Friday, a Newspoll showed the Liberal National Party had lost its decisive pre-campaign lead over Labor and would likely win with a slim majority.
But a late swing to Labor on a two-party preferred basis could lead to LNP leader David Crisafulli or Premier Steven Miles needing to form minority government with the smaller parties.
Katter’s Australian Party currently has four MPs in the 93-seat parliament, and could possibly pick up more regional seats. The Greens hold two seats and hope to increase their representation.
Mr Katter told The Weekend Australian he would negotiate with either side of politics to “get the best outcomes for regional Queensland”. But he blasted Mr Crisafulli for campaign attacks on the KAP, saying the LNP leader has not “bathed himself in glory as a possible partner in government”.
During the campaign, the LNP distributed leaflets that carried pictures of Mr Katter and Mr Miles at a regional announcement earlier in the year, to suggest KAP and Labor were in an undeclared coalition.
“They went straight to the gutter with us and it is not appreciated and not really becoming of a government in waiting,’’ he said.
“We will be looking for a lot of infrastructure investments that we have long pushed for, which is industry-enabling and wealth-creating – that will be top of the list,” Mr Katter said. “Things like dams, roads and rail.”
Mr Katter said he would prioritise the introduction of a bill mandating care for a baby born alive in order to test support among other pro-life MPs, but he was still open to putting up a private member’s bill that tightened access to abortion across the state.
But Mr Katter said the issue would not be part of any negotiations for minority government.
On the campaign trail, Mr Crisafulli said the LNP would not form minority government with the KAP.
“We’ve ruled that out,’’ he said, adding: “They (Labor) are horse trading.”
Premier Steven Miles reiterated on Friday that if elected, he would not make any deals to form majority government.
“Let’s see what the parliament looks like,” Mr Miles said, adding: “There will be no coalition government with the Greens or the Katters.”
Greens MP Michael Berkman – who became the first Greens MP elected to the Queensland parliament when he won the Brisbane seat of Maiwar in 2017 – said the minor party would not negotiate with the LNP and would never support an LNP government.
Mr Berkman said if Labor was in a position to form a minority government and the Greens held the balance of power, Greens MPs would push for progress on mining, cost-of-living and housing issues.
“With a (potential) bloc of up to six Greens MPs, we’ll be fighting for price caps on essential grocery items, the mass building of public housing, rent caps, and taxing big mining corporations fairly.”
He said the Greens wanted a 35 per cent flat royalties rate for all minerals, and said the Labor government’s hiked progressive tax regime for coal exports did not go far enough.
The Greens hold two seats and are targeting four more Labor seats in Brisbane. Their top chances of winning are Cooper, held by ALP backbencher Jonty Bush, and McConnel, the inner-city seat of State Development Minister Grace Grace.
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