Lot's Wife Edition 1 2021

Lot’s Wife • Edition One
Queensland State Success Continues
for Labor in Face of Federal Failures
Words by Pat Callanan
The Labor Party has continued its dominance in Queensland
with its victory in last year’s state election, despite its consistently
poor federal election record. The Liberal National
Party’s (LNP) loss on October 31 to the incumbent Palaszczuk
Labor Government means it has only won one out of twelve
elections in the state since 1989, that being in 2012.
resulted in the jailing of the Queensland Police Commissioner
and three government ministers. The Inquiry also led to
the resignation of Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen,
whose 19 years in power became synonymous with corruption
and authoritarianism.
Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the National Party leader and
Queensland Premier from 1968-1987, remains a spectre of
corruption in Queensland politics. PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons.
Associations with this period have hindered the Liberal-National
parties from returning to power at a state level, Dr
Salisbury said.
The LNP/Coalition has won more seats than Labor in the
Queensland Parliament only once since 1989. DATA SOURCE:
Electoral Commission Queensland. Interactive Chart Link
University of Queensland political historian Chris Salisbury
said a major reason for Labor’s long-term success at a
state level are the negative associations with conservative
Queensland state governments.
“We’re seeing today a reappearance… of very conservative,
sort-of religious fundamentalism appear in parts of the LNP in
Queensland,” Dr Salisbury said.
“I think that still leaves a taint on the conservative side of politics
in this state that leaves a lot of voters, and probably older
voters, with a real unease about returning the parties of that
time to government,” Dr Salisbury said.
Dr Salisbury said that unease was reinvigorated by the LNP
Newman Government from 2012-2015. After winning 78 seats
and reducing Labor to only seven seats in the Queensland
Parliament in the 2012 state election, the Newman Government
was spectacularly defeated after one term in 2015.
“We’ve now seen three elections where the Labor Party campaigns
on the opposition or its leader being somehow associated
with that period of government and some of the excesses
that we saw here during that time,” Dr Salisbury said.
“I think for most Queenslanders that is now something of a
turn-off, and it just brings back echoes of the past authoritarian
and very moralising government that we had here more
than thirty years ago,” he said.
The Liberal and National parties governed Queensland from
1957-89 until being engulfed in a widespread corruption
scandal and voted out of office.The landmark 1987 Fitzgerald
Inquiry (Commission of Inquiry into Possible Illegal Activities
and Associated Police Misconduct) resulted in the
jailing of the Queensland Police Commissioner and three
government ministers. The Inquiry also led to the resignation
of Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, whose 19 years
in power became synonymous with corruption and authoritarianism.
Monash University Associate Professor of Politics Paul Strangio
said it is also not uncommon for Labor Governments to be
preferred at a state level across Australia.
“[Voters] almost prefer state Labor governments for service
delivery purposes, because that by and large is the role of
state governments,” he said.
Labor’s success in the state contrasts sharply with its performance
in Queensland at a federal level, where it received a
twenty-year low 26.68 per cent of the state’s primary vote at
the 2019 federal election.
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