Susan Lamb spends up big in money seat Longman

Susan Lamb’s powerful United Voice union has led a late splurge in donations to Labor to fuel her campaign to win back Longman.

Judy and Chris Perry with baby chase after lodging their votes. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Susan Lamb’s powerful United Voice union has led a late splurge in donations to Labor to fuel her campaign to win back Longman in one of the richest, most hotly ­contested by-elections in years.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on leaflets, nightly robocalls, advertising, polling and corflutes in a campaign that has also had a majority of the major parties’ frontbenchers on the trail at taxpayer expense in the past few weeks.

Party strategists have privately conceded their campaign costs have blown out in Longman, with the stakes high as Malcolm Turnbull seeks to lead the first government in 98 years to win a seat off the opposition in a by-election.

The latest record of declarations to the Electoral Commission of Queensland show Labor has ­received more than $150,000 in donations, mostly from unions, in the past month.

More donations from interstate entities are not likely to be declared until later in the year.

Ms Lamb’s United Voice has led the way, donating $52,000 during the campaign, followed by the CPSU and PSU Group donating $15,000 and the Australian Rail, Tram and Bus industry union with $12,000.

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The unions have also provided scores of staff to hand out how-to-vote cards at the five pre-poll ­voting booths in the sprawling electorate, north of Brisbane.

ECQ declarations show that the Liberal National Party, which is running former state MP Trevor Ruthenberg as its candidate, has received $217,000 in donations in the same period.

The donations are believed to include a significant proportion of donations that were made to the LNP as part of its business forum at the recent state convention.

An LNP insider said the party was spending a “fair chunk’’ of the new donations on the campaign backing Mr Ruthenberg, particularly after he suffered a setback last week with revelations he had wrongly made declarations about receiving a medal for overseas military service.

The ECQ records show One Nation, which could decide the by-election outcome with its flow of preferences, has not declared any donations in the past month.

Longman voters have told The Australian they have never seen a campaign like it in the electorate, which has see-sawed between the major parties over the past two decades.

Swinging voter Judy Perry said the saturation of corflutes and ­volunteers at the Morayfield pre-poll booth, which is considered the busiest in the electorate, was overwhelming.

She and husband Chris, a fly-in-fly-out miner, took 10-month-old Chase to the local Autobarn so they could vote early and left feeling as though they had been “bombarded” with information.

“There are so many people in the one area so it just feels like you’re getting ambushed,” Ms Perry said.

The 31-year-old voted for Labor after a friend mentioned Ms Lamb had been “out in the community talking to people”, but Ms Perry has voted for the LNP in the past.

Labor has outsspent the LNP two-to-one in election promises in Longman, where its pledges are now costed at $86.1 million.