A few pieces of election news today:
- Pauline Hanson has announced that she will stand for election in the Queensland state election on March 21. No word yet on which seat she will contest.
- Crikey has launched another blog, this time it’s Pineapple Party Time, a blog written by Larvatus Prodeo’s Mark Bahnisch, Poll Bludger’s William Bowe and Possum, of Pollytics fame. Worth a read.
- A small-sample Newspoll in Queensland has brought the ALP’s two-party-preferred rating down from 57% in December to 53%. If this is a trend, this election could get interesting fast.
Update: Hanson has announced that she will be standing in the South-East Queensland seat of Beaudesert. This seat covers the rural areas to the south of Brisbane and Ipswich, mainly covering Scenic Rim LGA with parts of the City of Logan. It isn’t quite the same area as Hanson’s stomping ground of Ipswich from 1996, but it’s relatively close. The sitting LNP member Kev Lingard is retiring, and Antony Green’s redistribution gives the LNP 50.5% of the primary vote, against 38.1% for the ALP and 11.1% for the Greens. As far as Queensland seats go, this would appear to be the one most sympathetic to Hanson’s message, but who knows.
Hi Ben,
Does Ronan Lee have any chance of holding Indoorapilly do you think? Do the Greens have any other realistic chance of picking up seats in QLD like they do in inner Melb or Syd suburbs?
Cheers
Charles,
PS love the blog.
Well the former One Nation did indeed have a following back in the day: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensland_state_election,_1998
This election is based around the economy and basic state management, not social issues. She may win a seat in her traditional homeland but if she will be influential is another matter.
Quote an interesting proposition if she wins a seat and then is able to govern who forms government in a close election.
I wonder where hanson will choose to stand.
Presumably her best prospects would be in and around her old seat of Oxley- Ipswich, Ipswich West and Lockyer would be the most obvious. Maybe Nanango? I don’t know how solidly Labor the seats immediately east of Ipswich are, or whether someone like Hanson could get traction there.
I also don’t really understand Ronan Lee’s logic in switching to the Greens. With OPV it’s likely he’ll split the left-of-centre vote and make it easier for the LNP to win Indooropilly (not that they ever should have lost it in the first place!). Are Labor trying to run dead there?