LNP will need to show Brisbane voters it can be a moderate government if it’s to stay in power

For David Crisafulli and the LNP, the only way to defend its majority over the next four years will be to show Brisbane people the moderate government they thought they were getting when Campbell Newman was elected in 2012. Photograph: Darren England/AAP

The story of the Queensland election is the story of Mackay and Mansfield.

The voters of Mackay stuck with Labor during the landslide loss to Campbell Newman’s Liberal National party in 2012. They voted for the party in the “Adani election” of 2017, at the nadir of the state’s climate wars.