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Labor unlikely to make gains in Qld

Labor's hopes in Queensland are all but dashed, with political pundits predicting the party will only pick up one or two marginal seats.

2 min read

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Source: AAP


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Labor is optimistic about causing political bloodshed in Queensland, despite predictions the party is likely to snare only one or two crucial seats from the coalition.

Labor needs to dramatically increase its hold in Queensland, where it has just six of 30 seats, if it has any hope of forming government.

Bill Shorten has spent a lot of time campaigning in the Sunshine State, which has long been considered a key battleground.

But Griffith University political analyst Dr Paul Williams said Labor was only likely to nab the coalition's two most marginal seats - Petrie (0.5 per cent) north of Brisbane and Capricornia (0.8 per cent) in central Queensland.

And even that could be optimistic.

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"The conventional wisdom is that Queensland is the key battleground, because there's often low-hanging fruit," Dr Williams told AAP.

"But there are only a few seats under 4 per cent, so (Opposition Leader Bill) Shorten was never going to win the critical mass he needed to get into the Lodge in Queensland."

Dr Williams said Labor, which might only pick up one seat, would also be sandbagging its most marginal electorates, including Lilley, held by former Treasurer Wayne Swan with a 1.3 per cent margin, and Moreton (1.6 per cent).

Nevertheless, Labor was optimistic it could cause an upset in Queensland.

"This close to the election, it's still incredibly close and there are still plenty of places where there are opportunities for us to pick up new seats," a senior party source told AAP.

"There are still a lot of seats that are essentially in the margin of error of polling."


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