The ALP has suffered one of the greatest defeats in party history after yesterday’s Hunger Games Queensland State Election, as ex-Premier Anna Blighs went up in flames, her cabinet almost entirely obliterated after 10 tributes ministers lost their lives seats to now-Premier Campbell Newman’s Liberal National Party candidates. Only three remain quaking in their RM Williams. This is so Hunger Games, you guys!
The LNP could end up with as many as 78 out of the total 89 seats in Parliament (The Capitol!), with Labor predicted to hold onto just seven after entering the election with a 51 seat majority. Strangely enough, that’s four less seats than One Nation had in 1998. Please explain?
The scale of the defeat is best encapsulated in the district seat of Cairns, which the party has held since 1904. Cairns was lost to former journalist Gavin King, who once wrote an article that drunk women are partly to blame if they’re raped, and who also described Chinese people as “freaks and weirdos” in another. So that’s cool, Cairns – you lead the way into the future!
The all-singing, all-dancing, all-bigoted Bob Katter and his Australia Party won a disturbing 11% of the primary vote statewide, including the seat of Mount Isa, which is now held by Katter’s son Rob, a third-gen parliamentarian.
In response to his party’s success, Katter said, “We are laying down the battle lines [and] we now have our army in place to move forward.” Sounds reassuring and totally level-headed. But then again, Queensland politicians have never been partial to moderation.
Someone call Simon Hunt, and may the odds be ever in your favour!
