Queensland election campaigns continues as early voting opens

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Early voting has kicked off in Queensland as the election campaign ramps up. Both leaders started the day in the south-east of the state, continuing to make their cases -- including Labor's offer of free school lunches.

Transcript

00:00Well, as you can imagine, it really is kicking off into election mode here in Queensland.

00:06We've seen promises from both political parties.

00:09So today, we're expecting both leaders, the Premier and the opposition leader to remain

00:13here in Brisbane for the start of the day, as you mentioned, as early voting gets underway.

00:18Now, we're expecting nearly 4 million Queenslanders to head to the ballot box between now and

00:23October 26.

00:24But it really was all yesterday's announcements that have sort of set the tone and really

00:30been major policy reforms in terms of schooling.

00:33We saw the Premier, Stephen Miles, who officially launched Labor's bid for re-election at an

00:38event in Brisbane's north.

00:40Now, this was a notable event.

00:42So there were a number of former premiers that were invited, including the likes of

00:45Peter Beattie, who served as Queensland Premier from 1998 to 2007.

00:51But notably absent, interestingly, was Stephen Miles' predecessor and former Premier, Anastasia

00:57Palaszczuk.

00:58Now, this has been a hot topic, and the Premier was quick to suggest that conflicting schedules

01:02were the reason for her absence.

01:04But it really was all about that $1.4 billion package that was announced to deliver free

01:09school lunches at every state primary school across Queensland.

01:14It's an announcement that's already been met with mixed reviews.

01:16We've heard from the Greens, who've said that this is basically an iteration of their own

01:20policy to deliver free breakfast and lunch across every school around the state.

01:27The LNP have been quick to say that this is effectively a desperate grab for votes.

01:31There's also concerns raised about the impact of inflation.

01:34The Premier was quick to deny this.

01:37There's no evidence that this will have an impact on inflation.

01:40In fact, the Australian Bureau of Statistics credited Queensland's cost of living measures

01:44with driving inflation down below that 3% mark.

01:48They singled out our $1,000 energy rebates and our $0.50 public transport fares.

01:53So our cost of living packages have been designed to support families while also creating room

01:58for the RBA to move on interest rates.

02:01Now, as you can imagine, the Premier, Stephen Miles, has really spent the last 10 months

02:07sort of setting the tone of his agenda, which is all on cost of living.

02:10Meanwhile, the opposition leader spent yesterday in the electorate of Gavin on the Gold Coast,

02:14where he was detailing the LNP's plan for the first 100 days if they are elected into office.

02:19Largely, David Crisofulli's campaign has been centred around youth crime.

02:25He's had that slogan, adult crime, adult time, but certainly as we get closer to the countdown

02:29of the election with less than 12 days to go, we are expecting a raft of more policy

02:34announcements to sway constituents' votes as we get closer to October 26.

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