Bestinau got that-
Alli Lark is “stressed out, tired and really, really upset”.
When she opens the door to her flooded Deagon home in north Brisbane, the walls are ripped apart, the floors gutted, and there’s a lingering smell of mold and sewage.
Ms Lark lives and works in the Lilley electorate, the most fringe seat in Queensland.
Both her home and her business were flooded in early March.
“You can’t escape it,” Mrs. Lark said.
“Some people go to work and don’t have to think about it for a while.
“I leave the house, go to the company, and it’s right there in my face, just the memory.”
Ms Lark’s business is a clothing rental store that ran at 50 percent capacity in January due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Now it doesn’t deserve any more after it was engulfed by floods.
She is one of thousands in Lilley caught between the ongoing collateral damage of the pandemic and the effects of the flooding.
Lilley includes Moreton Bay and the northern suburbs of Brisbane and is Labor-owned by a margin of 0.6 percent.
Ms Lark exemplifies the concerns of voters across Lilley, who head to the polls on May 21.
“It’s going to be [about] who’s still there and doing work and supporting us and reaching out, not just whoever it is who was there in the initial phase, and then just moved on to the next,” said Ms. Lark.
“I want to see someone who understands this kind of thing takes a lot of time — that’s where my vote will go.”
Battleground Queensland
The coalition government won the 2019 Queensland elections, taking 23 of the state’s 30 seats, illustrating the state’s importance in federal politics.
Government preparedness, flood resilience, reconstruction and economic recovery would be “fundamental features” of the federal election, said Griffith University political analyst Anne Tiernan.
“Seats here will be very important… this is a very sweeping election and Australia is at a critical juncture,” said Dr. tiernan.
“It’s going to be a fascinating game because we have small sides, we have the Greens who could do very well.
Flood recovery has been a key focus for Lilley’s incumbent MP Anika Wells as she campaigns to keep her seat, which she won by fewer than 1,500 votes in 2019.
Lilley’s seat is in Brisbane’s interior and also extends along Moreton Bay from the Brisbane River to Sandgate and Brighton.
“What I learned last time on the ground is that people wanted to feel like they were being listened to, and that was certainly the message we got in the polls,” Ms Wells said.
Ms. Wells will face Vivian Lobo of the LNP – who replaces previous candidate Ryan Shaw – and underage party candidates.
Green cannon for seat in Queensland
In Griffith’s inner-Brisbane electorate, Labor will fight more than just the effects of the rising floods – they will fight against the rising popularity of the Greens party.
Terri Butler of Labor keeps Griffith on a margin of 2.9 percent after beating Olivia Roberts of the LNP, who will compete again in 2022.
But the Greens have mounted their biggest campaign in the electorate, which the party says is the most winnable in Queensland.
“We’ve already knocked on more doors and had more conversations, mobilized more volunteers… [talking] about bringing dentistry to Medicare or building social housing or tackling climate change,” said Greens candidate Max Chandler-Mather.
The Greens have South Brisbane and Maiwar seats in state parliament, which could symbolize growing appeal to the party among Queensland residents.
“It’s hard to know if the Greens’ votes have peaked, and they’ve been in the polls pretty consistently,” said Dr Tiernan.
“Terri Butler could be under some pressure.”
New blood, new ideas
In central Queensland, at the world’s fourth largest coal export terminal, a political shift is imminent, and entrepreneurs are looking to the future after feeling the lingering pain of higher prices and changing economic conditions.
LNP stalwart Ken O’Dowd will not contest this election – leaving his Gladstone-based Flynn seat wide open.
Both major parties have engaged high profile candidates for the race; Gladstone Mayor Matt Burnett will run for Labor while MP Colin Boyce will run for the LNP.
Cameron Wellsteed, who owns a carpentry business in Gladstone, hopes for economic recovery.
“It’s not where we really need to worry now, but another 12 to 18 months of this kind of increase and things will get pretty tight,” said Mr Wellsteed.
Mr Wellsteed also cited healthcare, regional growth and climate change as key voting considerations.
“As for a specific party, I haven’t nailed it down yet,” he said.
“It’s been a couple of interesting years where a lot has been said that hasn’t been done.”
Other Important Seats
Four of Labour’s six Queensland seats are marginal: Lilley and Griffith, as well as Moreton (in Brisbane’s south) and Blair (in Ipswich and the surrounding area).
The electorate of Defense Secretary Peter Dutton of Dickson (centered in the Moreton Bay council area) is one of Queensland’s most fringe for the LNP – with Longman (covering areas between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast), Brisbane (at the center from the city) and Forde (which includes Logan and its environs).
The regional seats of Leichhardt (around Cairns) and Capricornia (around Rockhampton) are also battlegrounds for the coalition.
Michelle Landry won Capricornia’s typically marginal seat by a margin of 12.4 percent after a massive battle against Labor in the last election.
But pundits predict a tighter match this year without the Adani controversy turning up votes.
“This is a totally different election, it’s not as focused on mining as before – Adani played a big factor,” Ms Landry said.
“This election I’m very focused on water and agriculture and yet, mining.”
Meanwhile, the Far North Queensland seat of Leichhardt, owned by Warren Entsch, has suffered “more than any other tourist seat in the country” from border closures during the pandemic, election analyst Antony Green said.
“The extent to which the federal government is perceived as responsive enough to that community could be interesting … and whether people feel like a plan is being spoken,” said Dr. tiernan.
Loading form…