Latest / The Front / In politics, there’s no place like Queensland

Transcript

In politics, there’s no place like Queensland · The Front

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm kristin amiot.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, October one. Protesters who carried flags bearing the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: emblem of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah and its slain
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: leader Hassan Nasrallah could evade prosecution. The Australian Federal Police
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: say new laws might be a get out of jail
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: free card for supporters. President Jose Ramos Horter says he'll
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: turn to China or Kuwait for support if Australia doesn't
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: back his government's vision for oil and gas fields in
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: East t Moor. That exclusive story is live right now
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: at the Australian dot Com dot a U. Queensland Premier
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Stephen Miles will formally call a state election today, kicking
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: off a campaign that's sure to draw out Queensland's unique
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: political character. In today's episode, why Nowhere does politics like
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the Sunshine State.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: John, I will talk to you then if you like,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: but you'll pay me a lot of money for it.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Are you senophobic?
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: Please explain. Let there be a thousand blossoms ballot as
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: far as often so.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: But I ain't spending any time warrant because.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: In the meantime, when it comes to politicians, Queensland likes
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: some colorful.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Well maybe I know nothing about politics, but is just
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: getting you votes. I am a Martian astronaut.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: And when it comes to politics in the Sunshine State,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: there's never a dull moment.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: There's an election on in Flanders and I know who
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: I walk back. It's a hard working man called Kata
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: helps anyone on the track.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: If, as the BBC once suggested, Australian politics is like
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: a sitcom directed by Quentin Tarantino, then Queensland politics is
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: the spin off. It can be amusing, sure, but it's
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: also fiery, poignant and compelling.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: You're right, it's a hard fought political theater in Queensland.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Michael McKenna is the Australian Queensland Editor.
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: It's always thrown up colorful characters. The politics is fought
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: really hard and there's a divergence of interests and pressures.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: Part of that is a function of the fact that
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: Queensland is a decentralized state, so there's often a conflict
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: between the needs of those in the regions and those
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: in the city, and they're exploited by the various parties.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: And who are some of those colorful characters that you
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: mentioned who've defined Queensland's political landscape over the past few decades.
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: In your you can't get past to Djoebajocki Peterson, who
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: was the longest serving Queensland Premier. He lost office in
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: nineteen eighty nine after the Fitzgerald Inquiry into corruption, which
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: looked at the systemic corruption in the Queensland Police Service
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: and also into parts of government. And from there we've
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: got other characters like more recently Pauline Hansen had Clide Palmer,
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: and then you've got the media tart Peter Beatty from
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: the Labor Party who was known for his populist ways
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: and his availability to the media. So yeah, there's just
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: been a long history of colorful characters.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: On October twenty six, Queensland as will go to the
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: polls to select a new state government or keep the
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: one they already have.
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: One of the things that people don't really know about
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: Queensland is that voters for the State Parliament don't change
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: the color of the government that often. Since federation, we've
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: only had seven chains in the political stripes of the government.
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: In twenty twelve, there was a huge swing a record
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: victory to the then Liberal National Party led by Campbell
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: Newman with an absolute smashing majority. But interestingly he was
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: a pugnacious premier and quite divisive. He then lost that
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: huge majority in just one term. Queenslanders don't, from records,
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: like to change government very often.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Labor has been in power for almost a decade in
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: the Sunshine State, but a series of fumbles over key
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: issues like youth crime, the cost of living crisis and
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: a monumentally flawed forensic testing system means a big swing
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: could be on the cards.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: Successive polls for about eighteen months or two years have
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: sean that the ll and P, led by data Chrisofully,
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: is ascendant in the polls. Our most recent poll showed
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: that the l ANDP is on a two party basis
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: of fifty five percent to Labour's forty five percent. So
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: in the single chamber parliament that we have, that would
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: probably result in the loss of twenty seats to the LNP,
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: and I think a lot of it comes down that
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: there's a really strong mood for change in the state.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: The Labor Party has held government in Queensland since twenty
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: fifteen under Anastasia Palachet. There hasn't been a lot of
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: huge wins, although some of their progressive social issues like
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: decriminalizing abortion and bringing euthanasia have been big wins for them.
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: But it's been a meandering government.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: So as a federal election looms, should Anthony Albanesi be worried?
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: I think there'll be some lessons for the Federal Labor government.
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: It's going to be a real test on the Labor
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: brand from Queensland extrapolated across Australia. But what we've seen
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: since December is that even though she's been moved on
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: as new Premier in Stephen Miles, the polls show that
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: support for the Labor brand has stagnated. And of course
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: Federal Labor Anthony Albanezi needs to do well in Queensland
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: and the next federal election. The Federal Labor Party has
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: one of the smallest representations of any government that's held
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: the Key to the Lodge since Federation. In Queensland there's
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: only five of the thirty Queensland Federal seats that's held
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: by Labor, so they're desperate to pick up seats in
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: Queensland and if there's a drobbing at the state election,
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: it will have Federal Labor concerned to say the least.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Coming up, Stephen Miles and David chris A fully hit
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: the campaign trail. Subscribers to The Australian Here all things
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Queensland election first, to check us out at the Australian
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: dot com dot au and we'll be back after the break.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: These days, where campaign trails go, memes follow, or maybe
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: it's the other way around. On this side of the house,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: we will always stand up for a woman's right to choose.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: That's very demure, very mindful. This is Queensland Premier Stephen Miles.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: He's tapped into the meme of the moment to spread
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the word about one of Queensland Labour's big election promises.
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: I am concerned about what those opposite will do to
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: queensland Women's right to choose if the government changes in October.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: It's part of a broader scare campaign designed to win
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: back favor among voters. But the thing is the promised
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: abortion supports services have yet to see the light of
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: day seven months after they were announced. Sources told The
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Australians Queensland editor Michael McKenna and political reporter Lydia Lynch
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: that Labor leaders were waiting until this week to announce
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: the almost ten million dollar program. That may be too little,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: too late in the context of a campaign that's already
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: under considerable pressure. Here's Michael McKenna, and.
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: Side has said hope that a change in leadership would
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: improve their electoral chances. And from what we've seen, certainly
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: in our news poll since the leadership change, is that
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: it hasn't made much difference. He's given it a red
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: hot go and it'd be really interesting in the election
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: because he's not natural on the stump. He often appears nervous,
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: he stutters through his answers. But I think he's improved
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: since he's become premier, and he's really tried to remove
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: some of the barnacles of the sinking ship. Since he's
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: taken the leadership, he's taken tougher action on youth crime,
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: he's changed the bar and he's thrown out some fairly
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: populist cost of living measures and spent three point seven
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: billion dollars on things like the thousand dollars electricity rebate.
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: But the fact is that even though some of his
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: personal popularity ratings have edged up ever so slightly, the
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: base vote for labor has stayed in the doldrums, but
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: as I said, he's invigorated and he's given it a
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: red hot go.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Elsewhere on social media, Stephen Miles opponent Liberal National Party
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: leader David Chrisifuley is making yoki.
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: I've shown you for my secret recipe for my spaghetti sauce,
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: and then we will add the biochis to a positive
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: comes to the boil.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Like Myles, CHRISI. Fooley has never led a state election campaign.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: This is the first time in more than three decades
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: that's happened, and it's shaping up to be the first
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: real test of the charismatic opposition leaders premiershiptential In the.
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: Last thirty five years, the Conservative Parties have been in
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: power just five of those thirty five years, and the
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: party has been riven with personal animosities and factionalism and
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: so forth. So chris Ipooly has been able to unify
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: the party and bring some discipline. He's got a long
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: history in politics, although he often tries to characterize himself
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: as an anti politician, a farmer who grew up I'm
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: a cane farm and then he was a journalist. But
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: he didn't spend much time in journalism. He won a
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: seat in twenty twelve with Campbell Newman leading the party
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: and then he was quickly made the local government minister.
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: But as he describes himself, he was a man in
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: a hurry. He rushed things, he wasn't prone to consultation
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: and he ultimately lost his seat in twenty fifteen along
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: with the government. And what he's been doing in the
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: last couple of years is really keeping to a narrow
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: focus on what he wants to talk about are often
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: the failings of the Labor government, and that has been effective.
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: But this campaign is going to be a real test
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: for this small target strategy. He's going to be on
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: the stump every day and this is the first time
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: that we're going to see David Christofooley under day to
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: day's scrutiny and we'll see how he copes with that.
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: In Queensland, you can never tell.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Michael McKenna is The Australian's Queensland Editor. You can follow
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: his team's reporting and analysis of the run up to
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: the Queensland election at the Australian dot com dot au