The Queensland election is over and with it the last time we’ll be hanging on the word of a Queensland premier on when the election will be held.
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The date of the next election is now set in stone for three years time, Saturday, October 31, 2020 and then around the same time every four years after that.
It looks as if Annastacia Palaszczuk will remain premier for the next three years and that is probably fair enough as Tim Nicholls did not mount a strong enough case as to why he should replace her.
That is not to say that the Palaszczuk government is faultless, far from it, especially when it comes to delivering for the regions and unsurprisingly Labor was trounced outside the south-east corner.
It was clear there were two Queenslands that went to the polls on the weekend.
In the south-east Labor did well and benefited from voter dislike of the LNP deal with One Nation and a sense that the Adani project would contribute to global warming and destroy the Great Barrier Reef and water table
In the “other Queensland”, the one that lies north of Noosa and west of Ipswich, One Nation were seen as “telling it like it is” while Adani means jobs and opportunity to towns doing it tough.
To bridge the two Queenslands, Ms Palaszczuk has had to walk a fine line between the two notions of “Adani”, and somehow managed not to fall off the tightrope.
To some extent she was helped by a poor campaign from the LNP who offered no compelling competing vision.
It’s hardly surprising that in seats like Traeger both major parties got a shellacking when faced with a strong candidate who puts local issues first.
My congratulations to Robbie Katter who has stepped up in his time in parliament and become an effective voice for the region.
The KAP will remain a strong force in the new parliament and Mr Katter is an able leader of the party.
I know he is held in high regard by the Palaszczuk administration and I hope they will be able to work together to deliver employment and prosperity to a region that badly needs both.
Derek Barry