- YouGov poll shows Labor falling in Queensland
- It comes despite Steven Miles’ social media campaign
A concerted social media campaign by Labor Prime Minister Steven Miles has failed to arrest his government’s slide in the polls, while a new YouGov poll shows the Liberal National Party is on course for an election victory.
The YouGov poll published on Friday shows bipartisan support for the opposition LNP has increased by two per cent to 56 per cent, compared to a previous poll in October.
This compares with 44 per cent for the government after 1,092 voters were surveyed between April 9 and 17.
The opposition has also increased its primary vote to 44 per cent, compared to 27 per cent for the Miles government, the poll published by The Courier-Mail on Friday shows.
Steven Miles recently shared a photo of himself working out at a gym (above) as part of a concerted attempt on social media to connect with Queenslanders.
Miles recently shared a photo of himself listening to Taylor Swift’s new album – The Tortured Poets Department
That represents a six percentage point decline in the Labor primary vote since October and a drop of almost 13 per cent since Labour’s 2020 election victory under former prime minister Annastacia Palaszczuk.
Miles has launched a determined effort to promote himself on social media, featuring photos of himself finishing a workout, listening to Taylor Swift’s album and showing off his biceps by putting on bins and getting his flu shot.
He also posed for a photo with the family of Molly the Magpie, the social media-famous bird that was briefly separated from its family due to concerns from environmental authorities, before Miles pushed for the bird’s return.
Current projections are for the LNP to comfortably win more than the 13 seats needed to form a majority government when elections are held on October 26.
Miles said with Opposition Leader David Crisafulli leading in the polls, it was time to announce his vision for Queensland.
“He has not yet detailed a single real plan for our state,” the prime minister told reporters in Mackay on Friday.
‘I know you want to be a small target. I know he wants to stay as small as possible so Queenslanders don’t know what his plans are.
A regular feature of Miles’ social media campaign is photographs showing his arms.
“So you can’t just say you’ve got one, without telling Queenslanders what’s in it, especially when you’ve got the kind of poll results today that say he’s more likely, very likely, to be prime minister in October.” “.
Under Crisafulli’s government, the LNP has already won an extra seat this year after a huge swing towards the party in two by-elections in March.
The Labor government lost the former safe seat of Ipswich West to Darren Zanow, who attracted 39.6 per cent of the primary vote with a swing of 17.8 per cent.
Labour’s margin for Ipswich West after the 2020 election was 14.3 per cent.
The government also suffered a huge change in Inala, which was previously Labour’s safest seat in the state.
Labor’s Margie Nightingale retained the old Palaszczuk seat with 37 per cent of the primary vote, but not without a 21.5 per cent swing to the LNP.
Cost of living, health and crime are the biggest issues for Queenslanders ahead of the election.
The Queensland Greens and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation also increased their primary vote by two percentage points each, to 15 and 10 per cent respectively, the YouGov poll showed.