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