Qld election campaign off to bumpy start

26 Jan 2012, 7:17 pm   -   Source: AAP
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(AAP)

(AAP)

Queensland's election campaign is off to a bumpy start with ram-raid attacks on MPs' properties and accusations of vote buying.

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Queensland's unofficial election campaign is off to a bumpy start, after ram-raid attacks on a Labor MP's home and the electorate office of another and a verbal stoush in which the opposition boss was accused of vote buying.

Premier Anna Bligh said the ram-raids appeared to be politically motivated and had no place in a democracy.

She said long-standing state MP Robert Schwarten had been left "very, very distressed" after a driver rammed his Rockhampton home.

"In our country we express our political differences at the ballot box, not on the streets," Ms Bligh told reporters in Brisbane on Thursday.

"I find it appalling. It does seem to be a politically motivated matter.

"On a day like Australia Day, I would hope that people on all sides of politics would condemn this."

A 62-year-old man has been charged with ramming a car into Mr Schwarten's home and the Rockhampton electorate office of federal MP for Capricornia Kirsten Livermore on Tuesday afternoon and evening.

Arch foes came face to face when Labor's Kate Jones and Liberal National Party leader Campbell Newman, her challenger for the seat of Ashgrove, attended a citizenship ceremony in the electorate on Australia Day.

Mr Newman took the opportunity to claim Ashgrove voters would be better off if he was elected and became premier.

"There is certainly an advantage for any electorate at any time if you've got the premier as your advocate," he told reporters.

"And I think that's important for people to consider."

Ms Jones said it was for voters to decide if Mr Newman was pork-barrelling.

But Ms Bligh, who announced on Wednesday that voters would go to the polls on March 24, saw it as an attempt to buy votes.

"Mr Newman, I think, can rightly be accused, particularly from people of other parts of Queensland, of trying to pork-barrel his own seat and buy votes in the seat of Ashgrove," she said.

Mr Newman traded blows, accusing the government of trying to rush through the appointment of the Crime and Misconduct Commission chair before the election.

He said senior appointments should be suspended until after polling day.

The premier made no such promise and said Mr Newman was not entitled to be consulted on the CMC position.

"If Mr Newman ... had any understanding of the state law of Queensland, he would know that the chair of the CMC has to in fact be jointly approved by the parliamentary committee, on which he has members, and by the government," she told reporters in Brisbane.

"Again, Mr Newman, not a member of the parliament, demanding things to which he is not entitled."

Attorney-General Paul Lucas said he had phoned LNP parliamentary leader Jeff Seeney and offered him an opportunity to meet the government's nominated CMC chair but the LNP had cancelled on him twice.

Meanwhile, Ms Bligh said she had synchronised her diary with Prime Minister Julia Gillard's and she expects foreign minister Kevin Rudd to also lend a hand on the campaign.

"But we'll have to wait and see," the premier said, on whether the two would be brought together to help save a flailing Labor government.

Online bookmaker sportsbet.com.au had on Thursday priced the LNP as $1.16 favourites to win the state poll against outsiders Labor, who were priced at $4.75 to win.

Ms Bligh said she was facing a very tough contest but claims Labor was facing a blood bath was not what she was hearing from voters.

"Watch this space," she said.

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