Labor leaders have attempted to tie the Crisafulli LNP government to One Nation, arguing it will need to form a coalition with the right-wing party to retain government at the next election.
Steven Miles and his deputy, Cameron Dick, made the spectre of Pauline Hanson a central theme of back-to-back speeches at the party’s annual Queensland conference on Saturday.
A handful of policies were also discussed, while it was confirmed frontbencher and possible future leader Meaghan Scanlon would recontest the seat of Gaven after a redistribution prompted speculation she could be parachuted into a safer district.
“While [Premier] David Crisafulli and [Deputy Premier] Jarrod Bleijie obsess over politics and obsess over trying to look normal, Queenslanders are being left behind,” Miles told hundreds of party members at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.
“If you think they’re bad now, imagine what they would be like in coalition with One Nation, because the next election will be a fight between Labor and a far-right coalition of the LNP and One Nation swapping preferences and hoping to govern together.
“That’s why … Crisafulli has not said a single thing about the rise of One Nation and their far-right agenda.”
Minutes later, Dick added: “Friends, we stand at a crossroads. A fight for the heart of our nation and the heart of Queensland.
“An unholy alliance is forming – David Crisafulli, Jarrod Bleijie, Pauline Hanson, Gina Rinehart … a coalition of chaos built to entrench the interests of billionaires, importing a brand of hard far-right politics from overseas, desperate to erode the dignity and security Labor governments have delivered for working people.”
The attempt to link the LNP to One Nation echoes interstate and federal Labor attack lines, as Pauline Hanson’s populist party continues to gain momentum across Australia.
Later asked by this masthead why he believed the LNP couldn’t form government again in its own right, Miles said: “Well, that’s arithmetically what you would expect from the current polls … It’s real that the 2028 election will be a campaign between Labor up against the LNP and One Nation, swapping preferences and prepared to govern together.”
He added he believed Crisafulli would backtrack on his promise to introduce optional preferential voting before the next election, saying One Nation had become a bigger threat to the LNP than the Greens were to Labor.
Miles confirmed Scanlon – considered by many to be a future Labor leader in Queensland – would recontest her seat of Gaven on the Gold Coast, after a redistribution seen as unfavourable to the party.
“The LNP might think their gerrymander would make Meaghan run away, but instead, she’s running straight at it,” he told the crowd.
“She’s prepared to fight, and fight hard.”
In a statement, Scanlon added: “I don’t give up when things get hard.
“This place raised me and I can’t turn my back on working Gold Coasters who need someone in their corner now more than ever.”
Miles identified housing as the biggest issue facing Queenslanders, and said a future Labor government he led would modernise the social housing income threshold, which had not been updated since 2006.
He added Labor would introduce a system for interest to be paid on rental bonds.
“Right now, too many Queenslanders are doing everything right and still feel like they’re falling behind,” Miles said.
“Young people wonder whether they’ll ever own a home.
“That is not the Queensland I grew up in, and it is not the Queensland we should accept for the next generation.”
Shannon Fentiman, Grace Grace, councillor Jared Cassidy, Di Farmer and Mark Bailey were also due to speak on Saturday.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers were due to speak at the two-day conference on Sunday.
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