Opinion
The left media have attention spans which make goldfish seem like wellsprings of ancient wisdom. Unless it happened on their TikTok feed in the last hour, it’s as remote on their consciousness as the Sack of Nineveh.
For instance, when the Morrison government was dumped, the MSM were cock-a-whoop that all but one government in Australia was now Labor. “The Libs are finished!”, they crowed.
But then, they’ve been saying the same thing about the Bad Orange Man for the last eight years.
By contrast, anyone with the faintest grasp of Australian electoral history (or the ability to use a search engine) would know that this is a recurring phenomenon in Australia. As is its reverse, with the Libs ascendant across the board. Yet the horking seals of the MSM bellowed the same idiot chorus in the early 2000s, with their undies especially steamed when, very briefly, Australia had wall-to-wall Labor governments (as it did the Liberals, in the late 60s).
It’s entirely possible that we’ll have wall-to-wall Labor again, after next week’s Tasmanian election.
And it will be just as brief as it was last time: Labor is looking almost certain to be booted from Queensland, in its state election, due in six months.
Labor is on the brink of losing the heartland state seat of Ipswich West after a brutal swing against Steven Miles’s ALP, but will hold Annastacia Palaszczuk’s old seat of Inala despite a voter backlash, after a Super Saturday of elections.
Insider ALP analysis provided to The Australian predicts a final two-party-preferred vote in Ipswich West, on Brisbane’s outskirts, of 53 per cent to the LNP’s Darren Zanow and 47 per cent to Labor’s Wendy Bourne, a swing against Labor of 17.4 per cent.
The Australian
With an election due in October, and no Covid to save them this time, Labor are getting nervous.
Queensland Labor MPs are bracing for an October election wipe-out and are urging Steven Miles to do more on youth crime and cost-of-living relief to make a “big, bold” break from the Palaszczuk era, after the shock loss of a heartland seat in weekend by-elections.
Mr Miles’s backroom-driven elevation as Queensland Premier in December has failed to reverse Labor’s plummeting popularity.
The Liberal National Party need a statewide 6% swing to win majority government. The swing in Ipswich West was 17%, while the former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s electorate of Inala belted Labor with a 21% swing.
Even “Giggles” Miles has stopped laughing, now.
In the wake of Mr Miles’s first electoral test since he replaced Ms Palaszczuk in December, he conceded the weekend results were “very bad” and “even worse” than he was predicting […]
While LNP leader David Crisafulli was careful to publicly play down his optimism after the by-election rout, he said voters had shown they did not trust the government to fix the state’s issues.
“There is a cost-of-living crisis in Queensland, there’s a youth crime crisis in Queensland, people are struggling to keep a roof over their heads in the housing crisis, and when it comes to health, our frontline staff are buckling under pressure,” Mr Crisafulli said.
“The overwhelming message is people don’t trust this government to fix those (problems).”
Labor and union powerbrokers last year forced Pluckachook to quit, after nine years as premier, as both her personal popularity and the governments were in free fall.
The leadership swap appears to have done nothing to arrest the momentum.
Several Labor MPs and party sources told The Australian the mood in the government was grim and deflated, and there were serious concerns about whether anything could be done to save the October election […]
There was also a warning for Labor in the statewide local government elections, with Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill – a Labor member and close friend of Ms Palaszczuk – set to be booted out of office by former One Nation candidate Troy Thompson.
The north Queensland city is considered to be the epicentre of the state’s youth crime crisis, and Labor’s three state seats in Townsville hang in the balance.In Australia’s largest local government, Brisbane City Council, Labor mayoral candidate Tracey Price suffered a 5 per cent swing against her, with the party’s primary vote slumping to its lowest level since 2012.
It is an ominous sign that the Labor brand is on the nose in Fortress Brisbane, which has been the party’s stronghold in state politics.
The Australian
If only Liberal branches in other states could get their houses in order.