Anger at LNP policies led to a record Greens vote

THE Great Barrier Reef has been confirmed as a potent canvas through which to exploit deep-seated voter fears about ­unchecked economic development and poor environmental management.

The lesson from Queensland is that muscular, pro-development posturing has lost its appeal with voters.

A flood of Green preferences — pro-reef and vocally opposed to coal — was crucial in delivering a possible victory to the Queensland ALP.

In the end, issues that Campbell Newman’s LNP considered its greatest virtues — cutting green tape and forcing strong economic development — turned out to be fatal liabilities.

In truth, Labor’s track record on the environment and development under Peter Beattie and Anna Bligh was not much different to that of the LNP. This was recognised by voters in pre-election polling who ranked the major parties equally on the environment at around 20 per cent each.

But the close race between the major parties on the environment in polling obscured exactly how much the issue really mattered to voters when they lined up on Saturday to give their primary vote to the Greens in record numbers. The latest official figure put the Greens’ primary vote at 8.24 per cent, up from 7.53 per cent in 2012.

The dismal performance of the Palmer United Party is final confirmation that Clive Palmer’s self-interested foray into politics has actually diminished his development prospects for Galilee Basin coal. Palmer actively demonised the Newman government but is unlikely to find any friends in Labor. Critics of the LNP used ­environmental concerns to amplify deeper issues that emphasised the lack of voter trust.

Rushed amendments, pushed through parliament at midnight to restrict environmental appeals to the courts, were a bad look. Changing tack on the controversial Acland stage three coalmine after the company had donated $700,000 to the Liberal Party and LNP dogged the conservatives through the campaign, putting them at legal odds with radio ­celebrity Alan Jones.

In the final analysis, Newman’s big loss is an even bigger win for an environment movement.

The result puts development of Australia’s biggest untapped coal province, the Galilee Basin, in ­further doubt.

Labor can be expected to be much more cautious on its plans to expand the Abbott Point coal ­terminal with associated dredging and dumping in waters near the Great Barrier Reef.

After taking asset sales off the table, it is most unlikely a new Queensland government will be interested in putting up money for critical infrastructure for the ­Galilee Basin developments to proceed as the LNP had promised to do.

The high Greens vote will also put additional pressure on the coal-seam gas industry already ­struggling in the face of a lower world oil price.

Jones has campaigned hard against CSG and Lock the Gate president Drew Hutton said the result signalled the end of the “coal and casinos” approach to economic development.

Labor is unlikely to turn against gas, having opened the way for development of the multi-billion-dollar CSG industry under Mr Beattie and Ms Bligh.

Further, to avoid the mistakes of the Rudd and Gillard governments federally, the ALP in Queensland must strike a delicate balance between support for jobs in an increasingly fragile mining industry and the environmental demands of the Greens.

Nonetheless, calls are already being made for Labor to restore popular Wild Rivers legislation in the Channel Country, which was overturned for the benefit of gas.

The election result will certainly make the federal government’s attempts to argue to the World Heritage Committee that Australia is doing the right thing by the Great Barrier Reef much more difficult.

Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt has been touring Europe lobbying World Heritage Committee members who must decide this year whether to list the reef as “in danger”. Mr Hunt has moved to ban dumping in Great Barrier Reef Marine Park waters.

Green groups will now push Mr Hunt and Labor in Queensland to go further and expand the ban on dumping to include all World Heritage waters which, unlike the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, extend to the shoreline.

Environment groups and the Greens know the pulling power of the Great Barrier Reef extends well past the Queensland border.

The Abbott government will ­ignore the environmental lesson from the Queensland result at its peril.