What we learned, 27 October 2024
With that we’re wrapping up the blog. Before we go, here are the major stories from Sunday:
David Crisafulli claimed an LNP victory in the Queensland state election and made his first speech as premier-elect. Labor’s Steven Miles has conceded defeat, officially resigning as premier in a meeting with the governor, Jeannette Young, before heading to the pub for an “XXXX off the wood” with supporters.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the state election results sent a message to the Greens “to bring people together, not to divide people”. Greens MP Michael Berkman said there was a chance the party could still retain its seats once postal votes were counted.
Meanwhile in Victoria, the Allan government announced “well-designed” apartments and townhouses would be fast-tracked through planning approvals. The opposition leader, John Pesutto, said the plans lacked substance.
In NSW, the state government and transmission company Transgrid was still trying to restore the power network for Broken Hill and surrounding areas. The energy minister, Penny Sharpe, asked residents to reduce their power use in the evening.
We’ll pick things up again tomorrow.
Updated
Greens MP says they may still retain Queensland seats despite election woes
Greens MP Michael Berkman did a press conference a short while ago after the party’s reverse at the Queensland state election.
The party had talked up their chances before election day, but looked likely to lose both seats on election night.
Berkman was the first Green to take a lower house seat in the state’s parliament. His seat of Maiwar is now considered likely to be held by the party.
At this stage South Brisbane is a very real possibility still, I don’t know why it’s been written off, because there are a lot of postal votes and a lot of absentees to be counted, so there’s a very real chance that Labor could be pushed into third with those postals counted, in which case Amy would be easily re elected.
Berkman said Labor leader Steven Miles had adopted a number of Green policies to hold off the party in the inner city, including 50 cent fares and free school lunches. He said Labor had held them off by “pouring more resources into keeping us out than they did into challenging the LNP”:
Steven Miles just lost government. He lost government in a contest where, if he’d actually identified the real enemy and gone hard, he could have held on to government, and worked with us to actually get these policies in place.
Instead, he’s chosen a petty fight with the Greens to try and protect the few inner city seats, and he has given the conservatives government.
Updated
