Queensland election countdown: Premier Steven Miles to hit 36 seats in 36-hour blitz
The Queensland premier’s planned blitz, which started on the Sunshine Coast at 7am, will beat Anna Bligh’s 2009 record of 30 seats in 30 hours.
Steven Miles will spend the 36 hours before Queenslanders head to the polls on Saturday, darting his way through 36 southeast Queensland electorates in a last-ditch attempt to sway voters.
Starting on the Sunshine Coast, the premier zig-zagged his way through the northern suburbs of Brisbane, spending time at hospitals, cafes and pre-poll booths in the hopes of pulling off a come-from-behind win.
The timer started at 7am on Thursday, with Mr Miles saying he would be busy right up until time runs out on Friday at 7pm.
“What you’ve all seen of me over the last 10 months is I’m competitive and that I like to stay busy,” he said.
“(My aim is to) win 50 per cent plus one … win as many votes as I can, talk to as many Queenslanders as I can and expose David Crisafulli as much as I can.”
The LNP leader Mr Crisafulli is also on a whirlwind seat-tour of southeast Queensland, describing it as his “fresh start blitz.” He started the day with a visit to Rocklea’s Brisbane Markets in the Labor-held seat of Miller (13.9 per cent), followed by a short stop at a souvlaki restaurant in Mount Ommaney (ALP, 12.6 per cent).
Mr Crisafulli held a press conference in one of the LNP’s top target seats of Redlands (ALP, 3.9 per cent) in Brisbane’s bayside, pleading with Queensland to “vote for change”.
“This election is going to be close, and what we have seen in the last week, the horse trading, the deals, the opening of the door from the Greens and the Katter’s to doing a deal with Labor, shows you how close it’s going to be,” he said.
“I want Queenslanders to imagine what Sunday morning looks like, waking up to a re-elected fourth term minority Labor government.”
Asked how his 18-seat tour compared with Mr Miles’s monster blitz of 36 seats in 36 hours, Mr Crisafulli said: “Well, I think you’ve seen my energy levels”.
“I get out of bed earlier than everyone else in the parliament, and I work a little harder as well,” he said.
Mr Miles’s ambitious goal is reminiscent of Anna Bligh’s winning strategy in 2009, with her 30 seats in 30 hours sprint securing her the premiership, in what was widely considered an unwinnable contest.
The so-called “rope-a-dope” strategy was inspired by boxer Muhammad Ali, who used it against his opponent George Foreman in 1974. However, it failed to clinch Ms Bligh the win in 2012.
A key difference fifteen years later is the use of social media. Mr Miles chose to be part of the travelling press pack early on Thursday and, instead, updated his online followers at each electorate he visited.
After a morning workout and coffee in the LNP seat of Ninderry (4.1 per cent), the premier went to the Sunshine Coast Hinterland seat of Nicklin, which is held by Labor on 1 per cent.
He then ducked to Maroochydore (LNP, 11.2 per cent) to visit the Cotton Tree caravan park where his family holidays, before heading to a cafe at Buderim.
At Sunshine Coast University in the nearby electorate of Kawana, held by opposition deputy leader Jarrod Bleijie on 9.31 per cent, Dianne O’Donnell told The Australian that Mr Miles had already won her vote. She, like 1.2 million other Queenslanders, have already cast their ballot.
“He needs to keep going with the push,” Ms O’Donnell said.
“Just to be out there among the public like this to make himself visible. I can see him really trying new things, being concerned and I think this is going to go in his favour.”
Mr Miles was expected to tick off 19 electorates by midnight on Thursday, which included the Labor seats of Caloundra (2.5 per cent), Pumicestone (5.3 per cent), Kurwongbah (13.1 per cent), Bancroft (12.8 per cent) and the LNP electorate of Glass House (1.6 per cent).
Similarly, Mr Crisafulli went on the offensive, visiting 16 Labor-held electorates in southeast Queensland, one held by the LNP (Oodgeroo, 4.48 per cent) and Independent Sandy Bolton’s seat of Noosa (15.85 per cent against the LNP).
Vladislav Musaliamov, a retired university lecturer who immigrated to Australia from Russia in the mid 1990s, is one of more than 1 million Queenslanders who have already voted.
Speaking to The Australian outside a pre-polling booth in the Labor held seat of Capalaba, the 84-year-old said he was concerned about youth crime but had been won over by Labor’s big spend on cost of living relief.
“Maybe it is a habit from Soviet Union,” he laughed. “But Labor is connected to the workers.”
Meanwhile, the incumbent government has spent around three-quarters of its time sandbagging electorates it already holds.
Currently in the 93-seat single-house parliament, Labor holds 51 seats, the LNP has 35, the Greens have two, Katter’s Australian Party has four and Independent Sandy Bolton has the final electorate.
The LNP needs 47 seats – a net gain of 12 – to win majority government, and requires a two-party preferred swing of just under six per cent.
More Coverage
Workers bear brunt of cost-of-living squeeze
While the financial strain continued to ease in the December quarter, new figures reveal that workers faced the sharpest rise in their living costs of all household cohorts.
AFP bungle puts PM in clear, but comms trip him up
Anthony Albanese can still decide to call an inquiry – indeed some are expecting it – into why he was not told straight away by security agencies about the alleged Dural caravan plot.