Qld state election 2024: Map shows where Steven Miles and David Crisafulli have been campaigning

The Premier, Opposition Leader and their frontbench colleagues have crisscrossed Queensland since July 18 – 100 days from the state election. SEE THE MAP

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Brisbane’s outer suburbs are shaping as the must-win election battleground in a fierce election between Premier Steven Miles and Opposition Leader David Crisafulli.

The Courier-Mail has tracked the Premier, Opposition Leader and their frontbench colleagues as they’ve crisscrossed Queensland since July 18 – 100 days from the state election.

Both party leaders have floated around the state, however Mr Miles has spent more time in southeast Queensland compared to Mr Crisafulli.

The Premier, who has been in the job for 10 months, and his ministers have saturated the region in the past 71 days and, in an indication of the challenge facing the government, spent notable time in traditionally safe Labor seats.

Two senior government MPs, Energy Minister Mick de Brenni and Health Minister Shannon Fentiman, are campaigning hard in their southern Brisbane seats amid fears they could be lost to the LNP.

Mr Miles has visited Inala, Ipswich, Logan Macalister, Capalaba, Kurwongbah and Mansfield in the past 71 days – all fairly safe or safe Labor seats – indicating the campaign could be won and lost in the working class belt of outer Brisbane.

The government also faces a threat from the Greens in its four inner-city seats of McConnel, Cooper, Greenslopes and Miller.

The Premier has visited and held 11 press conferences in Brisbane’s inner-city – about half of which were in McConnel, where senior minister Grace Grace is defending a Greens onslaught.

Mr Crisafulli has focused on regional Queensland with repeated visits to Labor’s Townsville, Cairns and Wide Bay electorates – where a combined eight electorates are thought to be in play.

Both major party leaders have made visits to Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast, where Labor’s surprise first-term MP Jason Hunt is working in overdrive against a likely defeat by the LNP.

The LNP leader, who polling indicates will become premier on October 27, has continued to visit the regional centres despite a firming belief by both major parties a swath of regional Queensland seats will be won by the opposition.

Mr Crisafulli has also made two visits to the train-building powerhouse town of Maryborough where Assistant Minister Bruce Saunders is seeking a fourth term.

Opposition leader David Crisafulli at the National Police Remembrance Day march in Brisbane. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

The LNP leader has matched Mr Miles’ tally of 11 press conferences in Brisbane’s inner-city, however almost all were at Queensland parliament.

Mr Crisafulli followed Mr Miles into Labor’s fairly safe seats of Macalister, Mansfield, Capalaba – and visited Mr de Brenni’s Springwood electorate – and continued deeper into Labor’s outer-Brisbane heartland of Waterford and Toohey.

Waterford is held by Ms Fentiman on a 16 per cent margin, however whispers within Labor indicate it could be under threat.

The LNP has preselected Logan City councillor Jacob Heremaia against Ms Fentiman, who challenged to become premier in December and whose defeat would spell disaster for the party.

On the other side of the M1, Mr de Brenni also is vigorously doorknocking and campaigning in his working-class Springwood electorate.

Mr de Brenni holds the seat by 8.6 per cent. But the LNP is optimistic its candidate Susanna Damianopoulos can at least come close to unseating the Energy Minister, who has held the seat since 2015.

Griffith University political analyst Paul Williams said it indicated Labor had shifted its strategy from winning regional Queensland to “saving the Brisbane furniture so it doesn’t turn into another 2012 rout”.

“The LNP won’t blitz Brisbane like (Campbell) Newman but they’ll make an incursion,” he said. “If Labor’s not sandbagging the seats in the upper safe region, near 10 per cent, they’re nuts. They may have given up the ghost in far north and regional Queensland.”

Analysis of the leaders’ movements also indicates that Mr Crisafulli will run a ­presidential-style campaign with media appearances from only his most senior spokespeople.

Premier Steven Miles and Health Minister Shannon Fentiman with local MP Jeniffer Howard at Ipswich Hospital. Picture: NewsWire / Glenn Campbell

Seven LNP frontbenchers have avoided taking questions from the media since July 18.

Other notable LNP MPs avoiding the media are transport spokesman Steve Minnikin, integrity spokeswoman Fiona Simpson and agriculture spokesman Tony Perrett.

In contrast, all of Mr Miles’ 17 ministerial colleagues have held several press conferences.

Gold Coast-based Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon has had the most public appearances – 17 – followed by Deputy Premier Cameron Dick’s 15. She is the government’s last-standing MP in the LNP’s Gold Coast heartland and faces a battle to hold her Gaven electorate from TV personality Bianca Stone.

Mr Dick, the government’s lead attacker, has remained in Brisbane’s inner, southern and western suburbs – but made recent appearances in Townsville, Maryborough and Cairns.

Originally published as Qld state election 2024: Map shows where Steven Miles and David Crisafulli have been campaigning