Queensland election 2017 live: Premier’s Comm Games warning
A One Nation and LNP government during the Commonwealth Games would send a bad signal to the rest of the world, Palaszczuk says.
Hello and welcome to live coverage of day 17 of the Queensland state election campaign, ahead of the November 25 poll. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will campaign in Cairns, as Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls is set to follow her to the key northern election battleground.
Charlie Peel 2.27pm: ‘What sort of signal do we want to send to the world?’
A One Nation and Liberal National Party government during the Commonwealth Games would send a bad signal to the rest of the world, according to Annastacia Palaszczuk.
Speaking from Cairns, before a tour to Green Island, the Premier cited comments made a year ago by former senator turned One Nation candidate Malcolm Roberts that the Great Barrier Reef should lose its World Heritage protection.
She called on LNP leader Tim Nicholls to state how he felt about Mr Roberts’ stance.
Ms Palaszczuk said she did not believe One Nation and the LNP would be good for Queensland’s global impression.
“Honestly, at the end of the day, the people of Queensland really have to stop and think and think really long and hard about what sort of Queensland do you want,” she said.
“What sort of Queensland do you want to project to the rest of the world.
“We’ve got the Commonwealth Games on our doorstep next year … what sort of signal do we want to send to the rest of the world.
“Do we want to send a (message of) a chaotic government, or a government that is focused on people.”
Ms Palaszczuk would not rule out taking support from the Greens and crossbenchers in the event of a hung parliament.
She said she was focused on achieving a majority.
“People have a very clear distinction: good stable government working in their interest or Tim Nicholls as premier working with One Nation,” she said.
“We don’t even know if those One Nation candidates will end up staying as One Nation members.
“We saw what happened years ago when there were about 11 members of One Nation elected to Parliament but they all just folded.
“I’m not dealing with hypotheticals. I am focused on a majority.
“What we’ve seen very clearly is Tim Nicholls backing in One Nation Candidates and One Nation policies.
“We know if people out there are thinking of voting in One Nation they will be making Tim Nicholls the premier of this state.
“What I can tell you is there will be chaos, because they have distinct policy positions on different areas and it will be chaotic.
“What sort of message do we want to send the rest of Australian and the rest of the world.”
Ms Palaszczuk said she was standing on her record to convince Queenslanders to vote for her party.
“I’m standing on my record: a clear focus on delivering jobs, a clear focus on delivering better education facilities and more teachers and a clear focus on our health infrastructure and to make sure we’ve got the doctors and nurses to cater for the growing need,” she said.
“What we need is a majority. I am absolutely working my guts out to see if we can get a majority.
“The real question here is that Tim Nicholls is not ruling out a deal with One Nation.”
Asked whether she planned to bring down the state’s debt, Ms Palaszczuk again refused to commit.
“We will be addressing that issue,” she said.
“We will always make that a priority and we have done that in our last term of government.
“Our election commitments are fully costed and will be released … in plenty of time for Queensland to have a look at it.”
Charlie Peel 12.26pm: Education the focus as Palaszczuk steers clear of Adani
Annastacia Palaszczuk has continued to steer her campaign back on track by focusing on staple Labor issues of health and education.
On the back of two weeks where the centre of attention was the Premier’s decision to veto a federal loan to Adani, she returned to regional Queensland to reassure voters in areas where One Nation is threatening to steal the hearts and minds of disenfranchised voters.
She flew into Cairns yesterday afternoon after two nights in Townsville where she announced funding for hospital equipment and to drive down waiting times.
Today Ms Palaszczuk visited Edge Hill State School where she joined Education and Tourism Minister Kate Jones to announce $15 million in new funding to go towards new music, STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) and reading programs.
While spruiking her own policy, the Premier continued her attack on the Liberal National Party and leader Tim Nicholls.
“We have a record education budget, we invest in teachers and we know our communities are going to continue to grow and we need to make sure that we have the frontline teachers that are needed to cope with class sizes,” she said.
“Unlike the LNP, my government will continue to invest in education.”
Part of that new funding would go towards employing 45 new music teachers and 1000 new musical instruments.
“We know how important it is to give children the opportunity to have an experience with a musical instrument and develop those skills in their early growth years,” she said.
“My government will invest in 45 new additional music teachers across Queensland.”
Sarah Elks 10.29am: Nicholls visits Scenic Rim
Liberal National Party leader Tim Nicholls has visited the LNP seat of Scenic Rim, southwest of Brisbane, for the first time, where the Opposition needs to fend off the resurgent One Nation.
Mr Nicholls visited the kindergarten at Woodhill State School in the electorate (LNP 9.2 per cent), where he announced $60m would be spent to upgrade the Mount Lindesay highway, which runs past the school.
Local MP Jon Krause needs to withstand the strengthening One Nation in the seat, which crosses over with previous heartland for the protest party.
The Opposition leader read (and sang) ‘The Wheels on the Bus’ with the kids, as the travelling media pack watched on.
It’s understood the Opposition leader will head to the Darling Downs next, where he’ll make an announcement to employ more than 500 more police in the state.
9.37am: One Nation hands out LNP vote cards
Labor has accused One Nation of handing out LNP how-to-vote cards, saying new photos show the two conservative parties are in cahoots.
The pictures, sent to the media by Labor, appear to show a One Nation volunteer handing out LNP campaign material at a pre-polling station in the Brisbane suburb of Lytton on Monday.
Labor frontbencher Cameron Dick says LNP leader Tim Nicholls must end any collusion or co-operation at almost 100 pre-polling booths accepting votes ahead of the November 25 election.
“Failure to ensure this will confirm once and for all the secret alliance that is in place between the two parties,” he said.
Mr Nicholls has denied any knowledge of the incident.
“I’m not sure if that’s occurring so what I will say is if you want to see real change ... then the best thing to do is vote 1 for your local LNP MPs or candidates,” he told reporters on the Sunshine Coast on Monday. Asked if he’d be happy if One Nation was handing out LNP material, Mr Nicholls replied” “Of course not”.
Mr Nicholls has repeatedly ruled out forming a coalition with One Nation but on Monday refused to answer questions about whether he would accept the party’s support, saying “regular Queenslanders” weren’t interested in “political games”. One Nation is polling strongly in some electorates across the state, and could find itself in the position of kingmaker if those voting trends play out on election day.
Political analyst Paul Williams says the LNP’s decision to preference One Nation second in about 50 of Queensland’s 93 electorates risks leaving voters jaded, given the party spent months saying there’d be no deals with Pauline Hanson’s party.
“Sadly, the LNP has bought into a cynical ‘whatever it takes’ model that now sees them in bed with a party burdened with laughable economic credentials and which has been forced to disendorse too many candidates for anti-social behaviour,” wrote Dr Williams, from Griffith University.
“No wonder the LNP quietly released its plan late on Friday. Like a dirty family secret, the Opposition is clearly embarrassed with the company it now keeps.”
AAP
Jamie Walker 9.15am: Parties told: you don’t deserve our vote
A glum electorate is approaching the Queensland election convinced neither major party deserves to govern and the result will be inconclusive, with parliament hung for a second successive term.
Online pollster Graham Young said yesterday he had not seen voters so pessimistic in the 16 years he had been measuring public opinion in the state. Through his think tank Australian Institute for Progress, he ran a virtual focus group of 311 voters and found 52 per cent of the panel, surveyed between November 3 and 6, expected a hung parliament.
8.05am: LNP heads to Queensland’s north as Labor digs in
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will campaign in Cairns, as Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls gets set to follow her to the key northern election battleground.
Mr Nicholls will spend most of Tuesday, day 17 of the state election campaign, in southeast Queensland as he’s done for the last few days.
But the Liberal National Party leader is expected at the other end of the state by Tuesday night as he looks to capitalise on Labor’s shaky position in the key region.
The seats of Cairns, Mulgrave, Barron River and Cook are all facing assaults from One Nation, and Mr Nicholls hopes to convince some of those minor party voters to give him a chance.
Mr Nicholls on Monday again faced questions about One Nation, refusing to say whether he would accept their support if the minor party ends up holding the balance of power after the November 25 poll.
The premier meanwhile has flagged an education announcement focusing on teachers for the region for Tuesday.
Labor is desperate to regain the seats of Cairns and Cook, which it lost to internal issues during its term, with Rob Pyne and Billy Gordon becoming independents.
The minority government also needs to hold Mulgrave and Barron River, as it looks to reach 47 seats which would give it a majority in the new 93-seat parliament.
AAP
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