Queensland election: parties told: you don’t deserve our vote

A glum electorate is convinced neither major party deserves to govern in Queensland.

Queensland Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls. Picture: AAP

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.

Labor voters dissented slightly, with 46 per cent tipping Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to win in her own right, against 43 per cent who thought Labor or the Liberal National Party would fall short of a clear majority. Just 10 per cent tipped the LNP to win.

Most voters — 53 per cent — did not think the government deserved to be returned. But views on the LNP were even more caustic, with 56 per cent of panellists saying the party was not up to governing under Tim Nicholls.

Tellingly, only half of LNP voters polled thought their own side deserved to be elected, against 16 per cent who did not and 34 per cent who were neutral.

Mr Young, a former Queensland Liberal Party vice-president, said voters had lost faith in politicians of all stripes, including the Greens and One Nation.

“I think we are in a pretty poor state of politics on all levels,” he said. “It’s not just a party thing, it applies to individual politicians as well. When I look around there are no giants out there — and there are not many adults, either.”

He said the issue of the Adani coalmine, which has dogged Ms Palaszczuk through the campaign, was emblematic for voters.

“When inner-city voters hear Adani, they hear climate change,” he said, summarising his findings. “When rural and regional voters hear it, they hear jobs. Our qualitative feedback is littered with mention of Adani.”

The issue exploded early in the campaign when Ms Palaszczuk announced Labor would veto a prospective $1 billion federal loan to the Indian company, initially blaming the about-face on a conflict of interest involving her partner Shaun Drabsch. “The move was viewed as cynical, not principled, and both green-left and pro-mining voters were alienated,” Mr Young said. “Adani figured heavily in hesitations when thinking of voting for Palaszczuk.”

However, Mr Nicholls is burdened by his legacy as treasurer in the Newman government.

“He is seen as being the right-hand man who slashed jobs and spending,” Mr Young said. “The LNP has been running advertisements apologising for the Newman government, but the electorate is withholding absolution. Perhaps they need to hear the word ‘sorry’ more frequently from Tim Nicholls, or perhaps there is nothing he can do.”

Mr Young said voters were keen to hear an “authentic voice”, and Pauline Hanson’s was the closest to this. But they had doubts about the One Nation leader, which would have been amplified by yesterday’s resignation from the party of new senator Fraser Anning on the day he took his place in parliament, he said.