Voters to ‘understand’ Adani veto, Stewart says

Townsville MP Scott Stewart believes Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s decision to veto the loan to Adani is sensible.

Greens MP Michael Berkman outside the Queensland Parliament in Brisbane. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen.

The last undecided seat in the Queensland Parliament has been won by Labor, with Townsville MP Scott Stewart edging out the Liberal National Party’s Casie Scott.

While the result is yet to be made official, The Australian understands Mr Stewart will retain the seat.

Mr Stewart told The Australian that Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s decision in week one of the campaign to veto the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility loan to Adani would have disappointed many north Queensland voters at first, but was sensible in the long-run.

“I think initially people responded with disappointment,” he said.

“But when you can sit down and have conversations with people and say this isn’t about giving taxpayer money to a company, they understood.

“If they (Adani) are fair dinkum about this, like every mine in Australia, they need to do this off their own bat.

“Even though they want to create jobs, people want to know their taxpayer money is being used wisely and invested into real outcomes that they can see.”

Mr Stewart said water security, not the Adani Carmichael mine, was the top election issue in Townsville.

“We’ve had four years now of no decent rainfall, we’ve been on level three water restrictions for about two years and there’s no doubt water is the number one issue for us up here,” he said.

The Electoral Commission of Queensland has confirmed 50 of the 93 seats in the parliament, however, unofficially it appears Labor will hold 48 seats in the chamber.

The LNP will have 39 seats, Katter’s Australian Party 3, The Greens 1, One Nation 1 and one independent.

Mr Stewart edged ahead in the count over the past week after Ms Scott took an early lead after election day.

Postal votes and preference flows were enough to grant Mr Stewart a second term.

Townsville’s Scott Stewart pictured with Mundingburra’s Coralee O'Rourke.

Greens claim historic first seat

Greens candidate Michael Berkman has claimed victory in the leafy Brisbane seat of Maiwar, saying winning the party’s first elected position in Queensland parliament is a “historic moment”.

The Electoral Commission of Queensland is yet to officially declare the seat but the Greens are confident with over 86 per cent of the vote counted, they have the numbers to secure victory.

The Greens’ most successful Queensland election campaign ever saw the minor party secure 10 per cent of the statewide vote.

“This is the best result in the Queensland Greens’ history and is a testament to our huge grassroots campaign and the thousands of volunteers who knocked on over 60,000 doors across the state,” Mr Berkman said.

LNP candidate Scott Emerson conceded defeat last week leaving the seat in a two-way race between Mr Berkman and Labor’s Ali King.

Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Labor looks set to lock in a majority government in Queensland, but Mr Berkman has vowed to pressure the government to revoke the mining ­licence and royalties holiday for Adani’s proposed Galilee Basin coalmine.

As counting continued yesterday, Labor claimed victory in the 47 seats it requires to form a ­majority government, but Ms Palaszczuk is understood to be waiting for the official Electoral Commission of Queensland ­declaration before confirming Labor has won.

LNP leader Tim Nicholls has also not yet conceded, with the LNP sitting on 39 seats after it saw off Labor in the cane-growing electorate of Burdekin yesterday but lost the north Queensland electorate of Hinchinbrook to Katter’s Australian Party.

Mr Berkman will join a crowded crossbench, dominated by three KAP MPs, and supplemented by Noosa independent Sandy Bolton and One Nation’s Steve ­Andrew in the coalmining seat of Mirani.

Eleven days after the election, the ECQ had last night declared results in just 34 seats: 18 for Labor, 15 for the LNP, and one for KAP.

One electorate, Townsville, is still too close for party strategists to call, but Labor finished yesterday about 130 votes ahead after preferences were distributed. There are also still some concerns within the ALP that the party claimed victory too soon in the north Queensland seat of Mundingburra.

Though Labor looks likely to have a two-seat majority — if it wins Townsville and Mundingburra — with 48 seats, Mr Berkman said he would hold the government to account on Adani.

The Adani issue has dogged Labor and Ms Palaszczuk, who announced a shock veto of a federal loan to the Indian conglomerate at the end of the election campaign’s first week.

“We’ve seen in other parliaments that a single Greens voice can keep important issues on the agenda,” Mr Berkman said.

“The basic first step is for Labor to understand it can’t promise something like a veto (of a federal loan to Adani) and not deliver. I will also push to revoke Adani’s mining licence and to put a stop to the $300 million royalties holiday.

“The numbers (in parliament) are yet to be determined finally, so we don’t know how tight it’ll be for Labor, but people are deeply cynical about our political system. We’ll hold the government to ­account simply by holding a spotlight on the things they said they’d do.”

Greens strategists praised the party’s intense field campaign — which included knocking on 60,000 doors — and a shift in focus from strictly environmental matters to cost-of-living issues.

Additional reporting: AAP