SOME OF THE KEY ISSUES OF THE 2017 QUEENSLAND ELECTION CAMPAIGN
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ONE NATION
There wasn't a day during the election campaign when both Labor and the LNP didn't issue dire warnings about voting for One Nation. Both sides desperately want to win a majority on Saturday, but Pauline Hanson's ornery party could make it tricky for them. The polls are showing One Nation could suck votes away from the major parties, especially in the regions where it is polling 20 per cent of the primary vote. Even one or two seats in a tight result could give them the balance of power. But One Nation has had an odd campaign, with little substance in policy or costings. Hanson, who is a senator in the federal parliament and not standing in the state election, has been the face of the campaign. The state leader, LNP defector Steve Dickson, has spent most of the time in his own seat of Buderim which he is in danger of losing. But there are seats that One Nation could win, and come Sunday morning they may be getting a call from the LNP. But probably not Labor. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has made it clear she'd rather be in opposition than work with One Nation.
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REGIONS
In Queensland, the election is fought on two key battlefronts. The first is in the populous southeast corner where there are 62 seats. The second is in the regions, particularly along the state's long coastline, where voters in the state's remaining 31 seats are more disgruntled with the mainstream parties amid a poorer performing economy. The importance of the regions has been reflected by the campaign diaries of the leaders. Palaszczuk jetted to the far north on the day she called the election and spent much of the first week there. Nicholls headed up as soon as he could source a plane. They have spent much of the past four weeks in and out of the regions. One Nation, too, recognised that the regions were where they'd score votes. Pauline Hanson headed up the coast in week two on the so-called Battler Bus before she had to return to Canberra. There's a chance that One Nation could snatch a couple of seats around Townsville, while the rural conservatives of the Katter's Australian Party will keep at least one of their two seats.
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ADANI
The Adani mega-coal mine was always going to be awkward for Labor during the campaign. It means jobs for the beleaguered north, but is on the nose with voters in the urban areas. The first week of the campaign was bogged down with Adani, starting with a protester hijacking one of Palaszczuk's first live-crosses on national television. She then got caught up double-talking on the state vetoing a loan for the mine, and what she knew when. The LNP wasn't let off either. Protesters dressed as leader Tim Nicholls and One Nation's Pauline Hanson popped up regularly outside events.
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THE ECONOMY
Both Labor and the LNP have been pressed to explain how they will pay down the state's ballooning debt, predicted by Treasury to hit $81 billion by 2021. Treasurer Curtis Pitt admitted the state's debt would "never get to zero", as his premier committed him to producing a Debt Reduction Plan he reportedly knew nothing about. The eventual document released with the costings on Thursday contained no new measures, and predicted debt would be $135 million less than the $81 billion mark predicted. Shadow Treasurer Scott Emerson didn't do much better, promising to reduce state debt by $700 million, but gutting $2.56 billion from Labor's pet Cross River Rail project to help achieve that figure.
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