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Right-wing parties in the upcoming Queensland State Election are campaigning on divisive issues, including the gaoling of Indigenous children. Dr Lee Duffield writes.
THE UPCOMING Queensland Election turns on the Liberal-National proposal to gaol Indigenous children.
That proposal conjures up core ideas about civilisation: whether to deal with a crisis in a considered way or go for simplistic “solutions”, effectual or not; whether to go for problem-solving or blame; whether to be open to work on relations with “others” – “skippy kangaroos”, Indigenes, migrants – or indulge in racial prejudice.
As a tactic, it is old news, finding a way to mobilise passions among the “10%” known to political analysts and operatives, especially in Queensland with its heavy loading of provincial votes. That “10%” is a volatile sector among the public, susceptible to reactionary propositions on race, guns, mining against the environment and the like.
The One Nation constituency is the known kernel of it: mostly regional based, usually older, behind on formal education, with some money, psychologically uneasy in a changing world. A good proportion of this segment has some memory of the working class and Labor antecedents, so stirring it up on a divisive issue that works their way is extremely attractive to the conservative parties.
Ten per cent of the electorate can become up-for-grabs in a divisive election — dangerous for the Australian Labor Party. The tactic is a cousin of Donald Trump in America declaring for mass deportation of undocumented migrants; England’s Boris Johnson running a xenophobic campaign for leaving the European Union; and John Howard’s “Children Overboard” campaign against asylum seekers during the 2001 Federal Election.
The Liberal National Party (LNP) leader this time, David Crisafulli, is betting on the gaoling policy as his main card. He is on billboards up and down the state displaying the LNP election slogan for 2024: ‘Adult Crime, Adult Time’.
It touches a raw nerve in the community, with groups of Indigenous children out at night in Queensland towns, doing break-ins and occasional assaults, stealing cars and joyriding at high speed. It is not Port Moresby or Johannesburg, but dangerous enough that the most reasonable of people are demanding an end to it and a good number also wanting better help for the perpetrators.
The issue has been kicked up in the last two state elections in Townsville, the worst affected city, without defeating the three Labor members there, but the activity and reaction to it have been getting more vicious as time goes by without a settlement.
The LNP has been emboldened in pushing the issue also, by the “No” vote against the Indigenous in the 2023 Referendum and by the success of its campaign for gaoling juveniles in the Northern Territory Election on 24 August. The Labor Government, in response to a continuing surge of trouble, is building two new remand centres for minors and both parties say they will spend much more on rehabilitation.
On the Right wing in Queensland, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has read bad polling for Labor as an opportunity to try and get members back into the State Parliament. The main concentration has been a high-intensity campaign in the electorate for Keppel around Rockhampton, for James Ashby, known as a leading light of the party, as well as for other political incarnations. The electorate includes a hillbilly component but even party supporters say the primary vote they are starting with looks to be too low — the main hope is to help the LNP win with preferences.
The other rural conservative group, Katter’s Australia Party, wanting to “get with the strength” has broken precedent by preferencing the LNP in Townsville, but has thrown up a potent new issue. In a hung parliament, it will support the LNP, if it agrees to repeal Queensland’s pro-choice abortion law, wedging Crisafulli who has said he would keep the law intact.
On the Left wing, the Greens Party has been organising and spending heavily to make some gains in inner-city Brisbane, telling under-40s share-houses they would impose a rent freeze. Apart from attacks on mining corporations, who would pay bigger royalties than ones already raised by Labor during its last term, not that much has come from the Greens on environmental issues, like the central debate in Queensland over tree clearing: Labor regulates it, the conservatives then “deregulate”.
Not much either against gaoling Indigenous children.
Amongst Dr Lee Duffield’s vast journalistic experience, he has served as ABC’s European correspondent. He is also an esteemed academic and member of the editorial advisory board of Pacific Journalism Review.
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