After a marathon campaign, Australians are a day away from deciding who will govern the country for the next three years.
Since Queensland voters delivered the Coalition its "miracle" 2019 victory, they have endured traumatic bushfires and floods, dealt with the wide-ranging implications of a global pandemic and managed escalating cost-of-living and housing pressures.
While the electoral commission figures show nearly half of all Queensland voters have voted early – even more than in 2019 – there remains a broad section of voters left uninspired by major parties and yet to decide who to put first.
As the global climate changes – meteorologically, economically and militarily – it seems battleground Queensland's priorities have also changed.
Queensland by the numbers
While it has a teal-tinged crisis on its hands in the southern states, there is no doubt the Coalition has still sought to woo its Queensland voter base – all you have to do is look at the numbers.
Queensland electorates have had 35 visits from the Prime Minister and his deputy – on par with New South Wales.
Labor leaders popped up 19 times in Queensland, less than in New South Wales.
In Queensland's second-most marginal seat of Blair, west of Brisbane, the Coalition is hopeful it will unseat long-standing Labor member Shayne Neumann.
The seat has seen Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce no less than six times during the campaign.
Similarly in central Queensland, swing seats have also copped considerable Coalition attention, with six visits to Capricornia and four to Flynn.
Labor is hopeful of extending its footprint north of suburban Brisbane by securing the Far North Queensland bellwether seat of Leichhardt.
The seat saw four visits from Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese – the most of any Queensland electorate.
Griffith University political scientist Anne Tiernan said while Queensland is not the focus of either campaign this time, neither party can afford to lose seats.
"Those itineraries tell you everything about where the parties think they need to work hard to get the result that they're looking for," Professor Tiernan said.
Professor Tiernan said it appeared the Coalition had all but conceded defeat in Queensland's most marginal seat of Lilley, where incumbent Labor MP Annika Wells won the seat by less than 1,500 votes in 2019.
Plagued by the late-term withdrawal of veteran Ryan Shaw, and with his replacement under investigation by the federal police, Coalition leaders have not stopped by the seat once.
"I think Lilley is just a bridge too far, so there are other places they've turned their attention," Professor Tiernan said.
Retirement on the poverty line
Over her 50-year career as a bookkeeper, Greenbank pensioner Jennifer Andrews took less than two years' maternity leave and rarely holidays.
For most of it she did not earn superannuation and was raising three daughters as a single mother.
At 70 she retired, but now finds herself living on the poverty line.
"The pension makes things very tight indeed, to the extent I've cut down as much as I can," she said.
"When you don't spend a lot, there's not a lot that you can cut back on, which is why I thought the health insurance is going to be the thing that's going to have to go."
In March the federal government spruiked a $20 rise to the pension, but Ms Andrews said with a rent hike around the same time, she is no further ahead.
She has considered going back to work, but said she doubted anyone would employ her.
The pensioner had already cast her vote in her electorate of Forde, which straddles Logan and the Gold Coast, and said she felt the Prime Minister was out of touch with people living hand to mouth.
"There's a lot of people in this particular community and other communities that just feel that the government doesn't care," she said.
"They're trying to get votes from the younger people and they forget there's an awful lot of us oldies."
Farmers at the bottom of food chain
Far North Queensland farmer Frank Sciacca took a risk 20 years ago when he began producing the world's most environmentally friendly bananas – the organic red-tip ones you would recognise from your local supermarket.
But after a series of intense weather events and pressure from growing costs, he is not sure what the future of his family's pioneering farm looks like.
Last year, a severe weather event caused 100 per cent crop losses, causing the farm to halt shipment of bananas for months.
"Climate change is something that I've witnessed and something that is happening, I've been here for a long time and I've been able to witness those changes," Mr Sciacca said.
"What we're seeing here is the bigger rainfall events at certain times of the year that traditionally we didn't have and adding more pressure to pest problems."
During the COVID pandemic, Mr Sciacca has had major issues sourcing labour, and the costs of production have skyrocketed.
"It's one thing being flattened, or traumatised by a weather event, it's another thing coming back to be able to pay the money that you borrowed to keep going."
He lives and works in the electorate of Kennedy, held by Queensland's only independent MP Bob Katter, who has held the seat since 1993.
Mr Sciacca said he felt farmers had been left behind by political parties.
"Sad to say I'm not hearing somebody reaching out to farmers, and recognising the issues that farmers are having and wanting to support those farmers," he said.
Changing tide for small business
Matthew Hodson bought his first boat from the Tingalpa marine business he now owns.
Mr Hodson has voted for the LNP at every federal election for the last two decades, with the feeling that it best supports businesses like his to thrive and generate employment.
He was happy with how the federal government handled the COVID crisis, but this year, for the first time, he is heading to the polling booth undecided.
"This is the first year that we've really looked at our children, our current life – middle age, our future, with superannuation and also our ageing parents," Mr Hodson said.
"We're seeing a little bit of each party that we like, which is making it hard to work out which should get the vote."
A resident in the Griffith electorate, Mr Hodson said he will be voting with his three children in mind – for the party that best supports a clean environment, steady employment and a future for his children.
He said the environment has become a particular issue of concern since his business suffered substantial losses in the February floods.
"The GFC we've worked our way through, the Gulf War we've worked our way through, fuel prices have gone up and down, interest rate cycles we've been through," he said.
"So, to sit in this same office with a passion of boating and to see these waves come through and governments come through and possibly now seeing the very biggest transition in our society, with the change to renewables, I have a concern into the future."
