Federal Nationals MP apologises to One Nation voters for the LNP failing to ‘stand up more for conservative values’ • See the results seat-by-seat

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Queensland state election was fought “overwhelmingly on state issues”, Malcolm Turnbull has said, as the federal Coalition sought to downplay the Liberal National party’s poor showing.

The Nationals MP George Christensen has broken ranks, sheeting “a lot” of the blame home to the Turnbull government, but senior government members including Matt Canavan siad there was “was no real discussion of federal issues in this campaign” and the story would be different at the next federal election.

Federal Labor has trumpeted the Queensland result as a vindication of premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s decision to rule out governing with One Nation and warned that the Turnbull government and Coalition MPs should be nervous that they will lose seats in Queensland at the next election.

Queensland election offers Turnbull no respite as right-leaning voters show their anger | Katharine Murphy Read more

The Palaszczuk Labor government is on track to win at least 44 seats, just a few short of a majority (47) and leads in other key tossups, making it the only party in a position to reach a majority.

On Sunday afternoon the ABC’s election analyst, Anthony Green, called the election for Labor, predicting it would form majority government with 48 seats.

The LNP suffered a 7% swing and while One Nation increased its vote it failed to translate support into seats, losing its leader Steve Dickson and failing to elect former senator Malcolm Roberts.

Christensen, who has promised to cross the floor to vote for a banking commission of inquiry and previously threatened to quit the Coalition, issued a public apology to One Nation voters for the LNP failing to “stand up more for conservative values”.

“A lot of that rests with the Turnbull government, its leadership and policy direction,” he said.

George Christensen (@GChristensenMP) To Qlders who voted One Nation, I'm sorry we in the LNP let you down. We need to listen more, work harder, stand up more for conservative values & regional Qld & do better to win your trust & vote. A lot of that rests with the Turnbull govt, it's leadership & policy direction. pic.twitter.com/0vCREdd7mn

At a press conference in Bennelong, Turnbull said the LNP “ran a good campaign” in a “tough environment” but declined to comment further, citing the fact counting is continuing.

“Neither side has a majority, so I will leave the analysis until after all the facts are in,” the prime minister said.

Asked if he had harmed the LNP’s chances, Turnbull said the campaign was “overwhelmingly” fought on state issues and voters could distinguish state and federal elections.

Queensland election result shows Australia is done with two-party contests | Ben Raue Read more

The federal Labor leader, Bill Shorten, congratulated Palaszczuk on a “fantastic campaign”, noting although the final result is unknown “it’s clear that Labor is close to forming government”.

“Queenslanders have put their trust in Annastacia Palaszczuk as a strong and courageous leader who refused to horse-trade her values with One Nation,” he said.

“The Liberals and Nationals are suffering from one end of Australia to the other as a result of the Turnbull government.”

On Sunday Canavan told ABC’s Insiders the result showed there is “a very challenging political environment, particularly in regional Queensland, where the swing against [the LNP] or the swing for the One Nation party was strong”.



The resources and northern Australia minister said he would not “sugarcoat” the poor result for the LNP but blamed the conservative vote splitting between the LNP and One Nation.

Canavan suggested the result will be “different at a federal election”, citing the fact the Nationals campaign separately and some LNP members sit in the Nationals party room to argue they will be able to win support in the regions.

The resources minister said if Labor continued to oppose a proposed $1bn concessional loan to the Adani mine it would be “hung around their necks [like] a mill stone” and cost it support in regional Queensland.

Canavan conceded the Queensland government can veto the loan to the mine, saying “they are within their rights to do that”.

“I suppose the Labor party wouldn’t break another promise and backflip again,” he said, before suggesting that if the independent Rockhampton mayor, Margaret Strelow, wins the as-yet undecided seat of Rockhampton she could force Labor to rethink its opposition to the loan.

The federal minister for cities and Liberal MP Angus Taylor also downplayed federal implications, noting the Coalition had a worse primary vote in Queensland elections in 1998 and 2001 but went on to win subsequent federal elections.

Taylor said the Queensland election showed that if people voted “for smaller conservative parties, the unintended consequence of doing that may well be putting Labor in power or keeping Labor in power”.

“The second [message] is we do have to keep this balance between urban Liberals and regional Liberals, between conservative and smaller-l classical liberals, that balance is crucial to the success of the Liberal party.”

Queensland election: Labor still short of a majority despite lead over LNP Read more

Speaking to Sky News the Labor senator and former Queensland state secretary, Anthony Chisholm, said the election was a “strong rejection of One Nation” and said the LNP campaign was “dogged” by Tim Nicholl’s refusal to rule out governing with One Nation support.

Chisholm said Nicholls had run the same “hollow” lines as Malcolm Turnbull and suggested federal Coalition MPs in Flynn, Capricornia and Leichhardt should be “pretty nervous” about the state result.

While the Greens failed to unseat the deputy premier, Jackie Trad, they remain in contention to win the inner Brisbane LNP seat of Maiwar.

Chisholm criticised the Greens for targeting Trad while “neglecting” Maiwar. He said federally the Greens vote is not as concentrated in Brisbane as in Melbourne and predicted they would fail to pick up seats from the ALP.

The federal Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, told ABC24 the result was “outstanding” for the Greens, citing double-digit swings in inner Brisbane electorates.

He said the result showed voters were “sick and tired of the old parties” and did not want the Adani Carmichael coalmine to be built.

Di Natale said Queenslanders and Australians “want power-sharing governments”. He suggested if the Greens win Maiwar then Palaszczuk will need to negotiate with the Greens to form government despite promises not to govern with other parties, because she could not afford to send Queenslanders back to the polls.