Queensland premier Steven Miles concedes massive swings against his government at the Ipswich West and Inala byelections are “very bad” for the Labor party and could result in a wipeout at the October general election if it doesn’t acknowledge the message sent by voters.
Labor lost the safe seat of Ipswich West to the Liberal National party after a two-party swing of about 18%.
The government narrowly retained Inala – previously held by the former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk – despite losing more than half its first-preference vote, a 30-point drop compared with the 2020 election.
Queensland’s governing party also bled votes to the left in Saturday’s local government elections, with the Greens recording a best-ever result.
Speaking to reporters before his son’s soccer game on Sunday afternoon, Miles acknowledged the gravity of the result and that voters had sought to “send a message” to the government.
“I was expecting a bad result and they’re even worse than that,” Miles told reporters.
“I’m not sugar-coating here. This is the voters from Inala and Ipswich sending us a message that they want to see us deliver more for them. Clearly they wanted to send us a message that we work harder, particularly on cost of living and community safety.”
Miles became premier in December after Palaszczuk, who led Labor to three state election wins, retired from politics. He said he “always knew it going to take more time” than three months to turn public sentiment around.
Asked if he had enough time before the state election, Miles said: “Well we’ll find out in October.
“I’ve heard form a number of MPs. They are not spooked. But obviously they’re concerned, this is a bad result, we’d obviously preferred to have won both of these byelections. But they’re all ready and willing to roll up their sleeves and keep working hard for their electorates.”
The Liberal National party leader, David Crisafulli, said concerns about housing, frontline health services and youth crime had contributed to the swings against Labor.
“The overwhelming message is people don’t trust this government to fix those challenges,” Crisafulli told reporters on Sunday.
The Ipswich West and Inala swings are larger than the Liberal National party government of Campbell Newman experienced in two disastrous byelections before its defeat at a general election in 2015.
The LNP candidate in Ipswich West, Darren Zanow, a retired former concrete business owner, campaigned on a platform of cracking down on youth crime.
Council elections
Labor’s woes may be compounded by the continued advance of the Greens in Brisbane.
Brisbane’s lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner, has held on at the head of Australia’s biggest council and has retained a majority of council wards, which are elected separately.
The Greens retained the Gabba Ward and looked likely to pick up another in Brisbane’s west, Paddington, though counting there remained close on Sunday. Several others were in doubt.
The Greens, who campaigned with the slogan “the system needs a shake-up”, replaced Labor as the second party in a number of inner-city wards.
“Yesterday we saw a quarter of Brisbane voting for the Greens,” said re-elected Gabba ward councillor Trina Massey.
“We’re on the brink of breaking the two-party system here in Brisbane.”
The Greens had anticipated winning more wards from the LNP, but party sources said the lower-than-expected Labor vote had helped to protect incumbent councillors.
The state held 76 council elections on Saturday, with one local government ballot delayed a week due to bad weather.
Due to low staffing at the state’s electoral commission, people queued for more than an hour in many Brisbane booths, despite turnout being lower than at the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
Some voters were turned away from booths due to local government boundary issues; some reportedly after waiting in line for lengthy periods. 150,594 voters weren’t issued a ballot at all, due to uncontested elections.
Counting had yet to begin for many positions on Saturday night.
The alleged murderer Ryan Bayldon-Lumsden remained in contention for reelection to the Gold Coast council. His contest will go to preferences. On Sunday, Miles said Bayldon-Lumsden could be suspended immediately if he wins.
The controversial former LNP MP Andrew Laming also fell short in his bid to become the mayor of Redland City, south of Brisbane.
The Labor-aligned Townsville mayor, Jenny Hill, was trailing to challenger Troy Thompson, a former One Nation candidate, in a close contest.
The Gold Coast’s mayor, Tom Tate, was comfortably reelected.
In Mackay, former Coalition federal MP, George Christensen, appeared likely to be elected to the regional council.
