We are expecting Annastacia Palaszczuk’s state government to call the election any day now.
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By law the next election has to be held by May 5, 2018 and it’s possible the government might go all the way to the end, given the public’s known dislike for early elections, and by then the Commonwealth Games will be out of the way.
A late March or April date is unlikely given the Games and midsummer is out due to the school holidays –Campbell Newman found that out to his disastrous cost when he scheduled the last election for January 2015.
There is a small window in February or March and the other window is, of course, now until the end of November.
That would mean calling the election in the coming weeks, something that many in the Labor Party are calling on the Premier to do.
I don’t have any insights into the mind of the Premier (actually, I was convinced she would call it while I was on holiday, but she was kind enough not to disturb my beach time), but it is clear that all parties and vested interests are moving on to a campaign footing.
In the new seat of Traeger, most of the candidates are declared with Robbie Katter with a notional majority from his old seat of Mount Isa, facing up against Danielle Slade of Labor, Ronald Bird of the LNP and newly announced Sarah Isaacs, the deputy mayor of Mornington Shire running as an independent.
I would expect the Greens, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and possibly Family First to also list candidates before the writs are declared.
It was interesting to see Cloncurry Mayor Greg Campbell use his community forum on Tuesday to send a message to the state government for better treatment of his shire, ahead of what he believes is likely an early election, something that would have been strongly mooted among fellow mayors and councillors at the recent Local Government Association of Queensland state conference.
One thing I am glad of is that we are moving to four year terms after this election and there will be no more nonsense and guessing games over the election date, which will be fixed in stone – Derek Barry