The federal ALP is encouraged by the state branch’s success in the Queensland election.
In Logan City, all five sitting local members have been returned and Queensland Labor Senator Murray Watt said it wasn’t that long ago when the ALP lost ground in Logan, so this is a good sign for the party.
Senator Watt said to have traditional Labor voters voting strongly for the state party is very encouraging, as was the collapse of the One Nation vote that has come back to the ALP.
Those sentiments have been echoed by the federal member for Rankin, who said the ALP’s national base could learn a lot from its Queensland cousins, in the wake of the election win by Labor.
Jim Chalmers said that the federal ALP could follow the example of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who was prepared to make tough decisions in tough times in the interests of Queenslanders.
Mr Chalmers said the result has shown that some areas that were formerly conservative were prepared to vote Labor, so the party needs to do a better job of communicating about what the ALP means for them.
Meantime, a leading Queensland political expert said with local MPs being returned in the election, it will most likely be business as usual going forward.
Griffith University lecturer Dr Elise Stephenson said with all five sitting ALP members of parliament being re-elected, she sees a few key issues coming to the fore across the region.
Getting infrastructure, industries such as tourism and the whole Logan/Scenic Rim region up and running again after COVID-19 will be the main focus, according to Dr Stephenson.
