Scott Morrison will call all his ministers to Queensland, with cabinet set to sit in the sunshine state in the next couple of weeks, as the pseudo election campaign heats up.
With Bill Shorten designating Queensland Labor HQ for the next nine days, travelling across the state on a bus, Morrison has called a cabinet meeting in Queensland before the end of the month, as both major parties attempt to lock down the battleground state.
Of all the states, Queensland’s 30 seats are considered to be the most critical. The Coalition needs to hold all 21 electorates it currently claims to have any chance of winning the next election.
MPs are putting in wish lists for electorates, while ministers are scouting for announcement and media opportunities in marginal seats, which include Bonner, Dickson, Petrie, Forde, Leichhardt, Capricornia, Dawson and Flynn.
While Labor plans to focus much of its campaign operations in Queensland, the Coalition has gone one step further, moving its federal campaign headquarters from Victoria (and last year, Canberra) to Brisbane.
Labor established its office in Parramatta early last year and has been conducting test runs for the campaign over the past two days. Coalition MPs are preparing for an election in just over 100 days, while keeping one eye on the possibility it could be called for March.
Queensland is no stranger to torrents of attention from federal politicians during election campaigns. Both Malcolm Turnbull and Shorten began their campaigns in Queensland in 2016, when Turnbull hit three electorates in the first day. Shorten admitted on Thursday that he considered the election campaign to be under way as he embarked on the first of a nine-day, 1,400km bus trip across the state.
One of Morrison’s first acts as prime minister, following the leadership spill in August, was to launch a Queensland campaign of his own, complete with his own bus, although the tour went slightly off-road when it was revealed he would not be on the personalised vehicle for the majority of the trip, and was instead flying in a bid to reach more seats.
The LNP claims its polling shows Morrison to be a more popular choice than Turnbull in marginal seats, although there are fears support is waning the closer it gets to an election, as political fatigue sets in.
But Queensland, which held in 2016, when the rest of the nation swung against the government, is still considered the Coalition’s best shot at, if not maintaining government, limiting the loss to one which could potentially be overcome in an election cycle.
Morrison is understood to be heading to Queensland almost as soon as he wraps up his Fiji visit. Western Australia, the other focus of the Coalition campaign, was treated to a roaming cabinet meeting in November, as the government attempts to sandbag the seats of ministers Christian Porter, Ken Wyatt and Michael Keenan.
