The Queensland independent MP Peter Wellington will support Labor to form a minority government and Katter’s Australian party has declared it will not make a decision on which party to support to until next week.
Labor is still one seat short of forming government with Wellington’s support and the final seat count is not expected to be known until next week.
Wellington announced his support for Labor on Thursday morning, saying it was conditional and he would vote against any Labor policy he thought would have a negative impact on his electorate.
“My support is conditional on the basis that there is no illegal activity, no allegations of corruption, but, more importantly, it’s about providing stability to govern Queensland,” he said.
“I’ve given a commitment that I’ll make sure that there is confidence on the floor of parliament, that Treasury will be able to continue to function but if there is any proposed changes to laws in Queensland that impact on my electorate, I’ll be voting according to how those laws will impact on my electorate and it may be the case that on occasions I will be voting against the Labor party’s proposed agenda.”
Wellington has also requested the Labor party look at making parties declare donations in real time.
“We need to make sure that there is no more of this secret donations to candidates or political parties,” he said. “The whole range of issues that I have been consistently lobbying for Annastacia [Palaszczuk] has agreed with and it is part of her commitment.”
Wellington said he did not have confidence in some Liberal National party members who formed part of the previous government and Labor had agreed to launch an investigation if large donations to the LNP had affected any policy decisions.
He said some “very significant” offers has been made to himself and Katter’s Australian party by the LNP but he would not go into the detail of them.
“[Outgoing LNP health minister] Lawrence [Springborg] has some very good ideas for the future of Queensland but unfortunately for Lawrence, in my view most of the people who were key players in the Campbell Newman government are still there and it seems to me that whilst there might be some shuffling of the deckchairs, those people are still there and will still be in important positions of influence,” Wellington said.
The Queensland leader of Katter’s Australian Party (KAP), Shane Knuth, and its Mount Isa MP, Rob Katter, also held a media conference on Thursday morning on the pretext of announcing whether it would support the LNP or the Labor party to form government. Instead it announced it was still in negotiations and would wait for more seats to be finalised before making its decision.
“Queensland is in a state of flux and this decision today does not deliver a stable government. Queenslanders spoke at the polls and after the ALP got belted last election, the LNP got belted this election, now we are left in a position where LNP has more of the primary vote … but the ALP has more seats. There is no clear mandate for anyone,” Katter said.
“That leaves us in the position where we can deliver something special to the people of Queensland.”
KAP, which has two seats in the new parliament, is stridently anti-privatisation and supports the rail line being built from the coal-rich Galilee Basin and investment in the ethanol industry, with Katter describing the party’s policy approach as “developmentalism”.
Knuth confirmed the party had been in negotiations with both parties and was awaiting feedback from the both the Labor party and the LNP on key points.
“The other thing we have been communicating with the Liberal party and Labor party about is electricity prices where people have been robbed and ripped off,” he said.
“We want to see a proper investigation is put in place so people can afford the electricity prices and bring it down. Another proposition we have been putting forward too: we want to see a state government insurance office to stop the insurance rorts. These are some of the things we have put forward and are hoping to deliver.”
On current counting the Labor party has 43 seats and the LNP has 39, with 81% of the vote counted. Forty-five seats are needed to form government and four seats remain in doubt, but there could be a potential challenge in Ferny Grove after it was reported the Palmer United party candidate, Mark Taverner, was bankrupt, disqualifying him from public office.
Current counting has Labor’s Mark Furner ahead by about 500 votes but any result could be challenged in the court of disputed returns, resulting in a by-election.
The LNP’s president, Bruce McIver, has said a byelection would be the “fairest solution”.
“I understand that law advice will be forthcoming over the next period and whether it is a court that decides, or who decides, I am not sure,” he told ABC radio. “But I think a byelection would be the most likely outcome.”
Katter said Wellington had KAP support but he was making his decision too soon.
“It’s common knowledge which way he was going and, look, I can’t speak for Peter because we still have respect for Peter and his independence,” Katter said.
“That’s an important point to make. Peter is an independent, we are a party, albeit small but we are a party and 250,000 people voted for us in the 2012 election, and we had funds before we had our resources stripped from us. We believe there is a fair appetite for the policies we represent in Queensland.”
“So it’s not a matter of us just trying to get a bag full of lollies for our electorate. Whilst we primarily represent our electorate and that is our focus, we have a policy agenda for the rest of Queensland.”
Lawrence Springborg, health minister in the Newman government, is leading the Coalition negotiations with the minor parties and has not given up hope of forming government. He said there had been “significant” headway with KAP and the LNP were still open to negotiations with Wellington.
He said Queenslanders had voted against leasing assets and it was off the table as LNP policy.
“I understand the concerns of Peter Wellington, what I would say to him is this has a long way to go and if circumstances do change over the next few days or even subsequent weeks or months, depending on the outcome of Ferny Grove, we are very, very open to working with him to address some of those concerns which are very, very important to him, and some of those issues that I and many of my colleagues actually share,” he said.
“With regards to Katter’s Australia Party, we have had some very good discussions with them around issues which are important to their constituency, and, of course, we have got some very, very good alignments because we share similar constituencies. I’m very disappointed that we didn’t have the chance to be able to advance those proposals for Mr Wellington to a more formal stage.”
Springborg continued to pitch for government saying Labor had no plan for Queensland and the LNP had more sound experience in financial management.
He emphasised the result of the election was still not known.
“I think this has a long way to travel, ladies and gentlemen,” he said.
“We do still have a very strong platform if we are given the privilege of being able to govern in Queensland and, as I said, that’s a long way to go.”
Springborg would not declare if he would put his hand up for the LNP leadership, which is going to a party room vote on Saturday.
