Palaszczuk faces climate dilemma after being ambushed over Adani

Annastacia Palaszczuk declares her support for renewable energy after calling an early election amid a tide of support for One Nation.

A protester is led away after ambushing Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on her first day of campaigning for the November 25 election. Picture: AAP

Annastacia Palaszczuk declared her strong support for ramping up renewable energy yesterday when ambushed by anti-Adani protesters, moments after calling an early Queensland election amid a tide of popular support for Pauline ­Hanson’s One Nation in regional battleground seats.

The first-term minority Labor Premier has gambled on a poll to be held on November 25, capitalising on the political uncertainty swamping the federal Coalition government but knowing her government’s fortunes will swing on how preference votes are directed from the Greens and One Nation.

LIVE: Follow the Queensland election in our daily campaign blog

With the election to be fought over rising electricity prices, coal-fired power versus renewable energy, and regional jobs, Ms Palaszczuk was confronted by protesters opposed to the planned Adani coal mine at her first campaign event yesterday.

The small band of activists, brandishing “Stop Adani” signs, prompted the Premier to restate her commitment to renewable ­energy, before she jetted to north Queensland last night, where mine workers are desperate for the promised jobs from the mine.

“We are delivering renewable energy … (it will bring) thousands of jobs for regional Queensland,” Ms Palaszczuk said as two protesters were dragged offstage at the Darra bowls club in the LNP-held but now notionally Labor electorate of Mt Ommaney in Brisbane.

The intrusion highlights the delicate policy balance Ms Palaszczuk will tread as she campaigns over the next 27 days.

While Labor will come under fire in inner-city Brisbane electorates over its support for the Indian conglomerate’s planned Galilee Basin coalmine, the Adani project forms a central part of the government’s platform to deliver jobs to must-win seats in regional Queensland.

Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls, who was also heckled by protesters yesterday, begins the campaign with the Liberal National Party needing a swing of about 1.4 per cent to win government, ­according to Griffith University political analyst Paul Williams, after this year’s redistribution of electoral boundaries and the ­expansion to 93 seats from the ­current 89-seat parliament.

Campbell Newman, the former LNP premier, entered the debate, declaring Mr Nicholls could not lead Queensland without One Nation’s backing.

But when Mr Nicholls was asked to comment on Mr Newman’s prediction, he replied: “He’s wrong, next question.’’

The poll, which had been due to be held early next year, will mark the first time in almost 30 years that voters in Queensland will have to fill out every box, with the reintroduction of compulsory preferential voting.

Ms Palaszczuk, who just days ago promised only something ­“extraordinary” would drive her to the polls this year, declared Queenslanders had a choice

between a stable Labor government and a “cobbled-together” coalition between the LNP and One Nation.

“The choice facing Queenslanders is simple: a stable Labor government with a solid ­record and a clear plan, focused on Queensland’s future; or a cobbled together LNP-One Nation ­govern­ment, that will cut frontline ser­vices, sack frontline staff, and sell our electricity assets,” she said.

Queensland LNP leader Tim Nicholls meets supporters in his electorate of Clayfield.

Mr Nicholls, the treasurer in the one-term Newman government which lost office in the shock 2015 result, hit back, describing the claims as the “mother-of-all-scare campaigns” and promising there would be “no deal, no coalition and no shared ministry” between the LNP and One Nation.

“You’ll hear a lot of lies from Labor over the next four weeks,” he said. “So let me be clear, we will not sell assets; we have said there will be no forced redundancies in the public service and, in fact, we have a plan to make the public service work better for all Queenslanders.”

Mr Nicholls also accused Labor of overseeing a 70 per cent rise in wholesale electricity prices, while Labor claims its state-ownership of electricity assets has ensured the state has the lowest power price rises in the country.

Last night, Ms Palaszczuk flew to Proserpine, before heading to Airlie Beach, in the electorate of Whitsunday, which the LNP holds by a fine 0.6 per cent margin. Whitsunday is also home to drive-in-drive-out mine workers, many of whom are pinning their hopes for employment on Adani’s proposal.

Ms Palaszczuk was forced to call an early election after she ordered Labor last Friday to ­disendorse ALP backbencher Rick Williams, the member for Pumicestone, a seat that is now notionally LNP by just 0.1 per cent, after fresh allegations of bad behaviour.

The move meant Ms Palaszczuk lost her one-seat parliamentary majority, leaving Labor and the LNP locked on the same number of seats, and the Premier unwilling to return to a hung parliament mid-next month to test her numbers on the floor.

Ms Palaszczuk said yesterday she had chosen to go to an election to give business and industry certainty ahead of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.