Labor faces knife-edge result as LNP records significant swing in Brisbane heartland
The Labor opposition in Queensland appears to have dealt a blow against itself in the party’s north Brisbane headquarters and appears to have a knife-edge result on election night in Stafford.
The vote, in a seat where Labor has lost just once since 2001, was on track to at least narrow the party’s margin 19 months after a shocking state election and increase pressure on party leader Steven Miles.
By 10 p.m., when nearly 60 percent of the votes had been counted, the first two-party party election commission tally It oscillates between a Labor or LNP win, with analysts suggesting Labor could still hold on.
Even if the seat does not fall to the LNP, the move towards the conservative party will further strengthen Crisafulli’s government after the by-election victory last year at Hinchinbrook.
This time he encountered lawyer Luke Richmond, who has a background in health policy and was most recently Labour’s deputy foreign secretary.
In a largely small-target campaign used by the government to tout its fledgling fuel security plans (while Labor attacked the LNP over hospital beds), much of the focus has been on sending a message to the government or opposition.
The seat, which stretches from Newmarket to Chermside north of Brisbane, is made up mostly of younger, better-educated voters who tend to be renters.
Labor has held the seat in every poll since the electorate was formed in 2001, except for the 2012 Newman landslide. The LNP lost the seat two years later in one of the state’s biggest anti-government byelection swings.
As a result, during the snap election campaign, the LNP government’s figures suggested Labor should win with a double-digit surge.
But independent analysts highlighted stark differences between the two by-elections.
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Matt Dennien is a reporter for the Brisbane Times covering state politics, parliament and the public sector. He previously worked for newspapers in Tasmania and Brisbane community radio station 4ZZZ. Contact him securely on Signal @mattdennien.15Connect via email.
