The Queensland government has lashed out at the Liberal National Party and the Greens, claiming they have a secret deal to preference Labor dead last at the upcoming state election.
The LNP opposition won't rule out preferencing the Greens over Labor in every single seat, which could help the smaller party win up to three seats at the October 31 poll.
Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington said the LNP has introduced a bill to return to optional preferential voting, so Queenslanders can preference whoever they want to, and warned a vote for a minor party is a vote for Labor.
She says the LNP hasn't made a decision yet about whether to put Labor last in every seat.
"A decision will be made before the election," Ms Frecklington added on Friday.
The Greens currently hold a single seat in parliament, with Michael Berkmann in Maiwar, and is gunning for former treasurer Jackie Trad's South Brisbane seat and Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace's central Brisbane seat of McConnel.
The LNP has already said it will preference Labor dead last in South Brisbane, but it remains undecided about McConnel and particularly Maiwar, which it believes it could win back from the Greens after losing it in 2017.
Regional Development Minister Glenn Butcher slammed both rivals over their lack of clarity over preferences, saying more Greens in parliament would be disastrous for the economy.
"More Greens in parliament would be disastrous for the Queensland resources sector: the Greens want to increase royalties by two and a half to eight times the current rate. This would cripple the industry and lead to huge losses to regional Queensland," he said.
"These are the policies that we know that Deb Frecklington and the LNP are furthering by doing preference deals to elect Greens MPs and this is a kick in the guts for regional Queensland.
"Deb Frecklington needs to explain her secret preference deals with the Greens to the people of Queensland."
Meanwhile, businessman Clive Palmer's company Mineralogy has donated $2 million to his United Australia Party.
The donation is almost eight times the $259,249 given to Labor by the United Voice union and more than eight times the $217,500 that APEX Outdoor donated to the LNP.
The UAP doesn't have any seats in Queensland parliament but it's targetting 16 seats, mainly in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast.
