Queensland election: Nicholls tackles Hanson head-on

LNP leader Tim Nicholls headed deep into Pauline Hanson territory to launch an attack on One Nation.

LNP leader Tim Nicholls and deputy Deb Frecklington at a quarry in the Lockyer Valley yesterday. Picture: AAP

Venturing into the lion’s den on day two of the Queensland election campaign, Liberal National Party leader Tim Nicholls acted swiftly to wrest back disenfranchised voters looking towards One Nation.

It was in the seat of Lockyer that the party’s talismanic leader Pauline Hanson almost re-emerged onto the political scene in 2015 before her successful Senate tilt last year.

Lockyer, One Nation heartland, was first held by the party in 1998, the year Senator Hanson’s firebrand style and populist policies shook the Queensland political scene and won 11 seats.

It has been held safely by LNP custodian Ian Rickuss since, ­including in 2015 when he ­defeated Senator Hanson by just more than 100 votes.

But with Mr Rickuss retiring and One Nation finding renewed support from voters fed up with the major parties, Mr Nicholls acted early to stem the bleeding and spent the bulk of the first real day of campaigning in the rural electorate.

The LNP kicked off its tour in the marginally Labor seat of Springwood, in Logan City, where LNP candidate Julie Talty plans to unseat Sport, Public Works and Housing Minister Mick de Brenni, before heading an hour’s drive west to Lockyer.

LNP sources say polling has the race on a knife’s edge, with the primary vote split down the middle.

The difference, they say, will come down to the favourability of their candidate Jim McDonald against One Nation stalwart Jim Savage.

Mr McDonald, a police officer in charge of Laidley station, the former Gatton mayor and a long-time Lockyer Valley councillor, is well known in the community and he has reminded voters that his opponent is a “blow in” from the Sunshine Coast.

But Mr Nicholls knows that even a star candidate is going to need an extra boost to combat the One Nation juggernaut.

Touring the electorate with Mr Nicholls and LNP deputy Deb Frecklington to promote the party’s economic policy yesterday, Mr McDonald told The Australian he was not taking anything for granted.

“There are so many small ­businesses in Lockyer which will benefit from this rise in payroll tax threshold, reducing electricity ­prices, getting young people back to work and building infrastructure we need,” Mr McDonald said.

Mr Savage was unavailable for comment yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday Mr Nicholls again ruled out a formal coalition with One Nation to form government and warned that a vote for a minor party would be a vote for Labor.

“We know that because we saw it happen in 1998 and 2001 here in Queensland and we’ve just seen it happen in the state elections in Western Australia,” the LNP ­leader said.