With just days until the close of nominations,the highest-profile players outside political party structures in Queensland are not environmentally conscious urban independents but the more traditional unaligned candidates in the regions.
Experts suggest the leafy inner-west seat of Ryan,and the Queensland capital’s namesake electorate of Brisbane,would be most at risk from the kind of well-organised and high-profile campaigns seen around Sydney and Melbourne. But none have emerged.
Experts put the discrepancy down to several factors:the more diverse makeup of electorates around the smaller city,a lack of such energetic and already organised community efforts to unseat lower-profile Liberal MPs,and a more conservative lean within Coalition supporters.
“It just doesn’t appear that there’s the dissatisfaction with the Liberal National Party and with[Prime Minister Scott] Morrison in those seats yet,and obviously,a high-profile viable candidate to contest,” University of Queensland political scientist Glenn Kefford said.
Kefford and Anne Tiernan,Griffith University professor of public policy,suggest the Queensland seats of would be most at risk from a challenger in the vein of incumbent on Sydney’s northern beaches,or candidate Zoe Daniel in the.
That pair are among,largely women,backed by Simon Holmes a Court’s Climate 200 umbrella and pushing against moderate Liberals on the key themes of integrity,climate action and gender equality.
Sitting independents and candidates in other states have the group’s backing,yet there is no Queensland representation.
While a group dubbed Voices of Ryan was formed in the second half of last year,it lacks a candidate and has instead sought to create a more politically engaged community.
“We see ourselves as being there for the long term,” said Alessa Anibaldi,one of the still-small group largely made up of working professionals. “Our intention is not to disappear after the election.”
The sprawling seat of Ryan takes in Brisbane’s leafy western suburbs,but extends into the rural Somerset region. It is held by Julian Simmonds on a 6 per cent margin.
Tiernan said she was aware of a similar group that had also sought to establish itself in Brisbane,where moderate Liberal Trevor Evans holds a 4.9 per cent buffer.
And while high-profile independent candidates have emerged in the safe Toowoomba-based seat of Groom and the Bundaberg-centred Hinkler,held by and Nationals-aligned Resource Minister Keith Pitt respectively,both Tiernan and Kefford argue they are more closely related to independents such as.
Suzie Holt’s campaign in Groom,while endorsed by the separate Voices of Groom group,is focused more on key local issues for the country’s second-largest inland city after Canberra:health and agriculture.
McGowan has even taken part in events with Holt in the Darling Downs hub.
Jack Dempsey,a former state LNP minister,will run in Hinkler also on a local policy platform that includes disaster mitigation and water security in his region. Neither are supported by Climate 200,but both believe their communities hold a growing mood for change and a larger piece of the Commonwealth pie.
Holt,whose mother was a member of the Liberal party in Brisbane,where she lived for a period before her move to the Toowoomba region back in 1993,said she was not sure why grassroots independent campaigns had not emerged around the capital,but hoped her campaign could motivate others.
In Groom,Hamilton has a 20.5 per cent buffer, Undeterred,Holt said even if she did not win “it’s time to make this seat marginal”.
Jacqueline Maley cuts through the noise of the federal election campaign with news,views and expert analysis. Sign up to our Australia Votes 2022 newsletter.