CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
A junior Murdoch journalist is putting their belongings into a cardboard box today, after making the career-ending mistake of asking the leader of the Queensland LNP a curly question.
Crisafulli cannot confirm whether his party vows to protect reproductive healthcare for Queensland women.
He also could not confirm whether or not his party would expose their Evangelical Christian edge with a conscience vote on the topic.
He also did not answer why, when Labor brought legislation to decriminalise abortion in 2018, he voted against it.
With two weeks out until Queenslanders vote in the 2024 State Election, this is the type of capitulation that conservatives have nightmares about. All the LNP had to do was keep their heads low and give their nightly news soundbites that criticise the Labor Government – and this election was theirs for the taking.
But now they’ve been forced to publicly address a hot button topic that they’d hoped would be buried under the culture wars of bathroom signs and youth crime.
Even worse, it’s a mask-off moment that has been orchestrated by The Katter Party, the LNP’s only real competitor in the rural Bible belts.
On Tuesday, KAP leader Robbie Katter, who currently has four Queensland MPs, made it clear they will be seeking support for a private members bill to wind back access to abortions because they are obviously very Catholic.
But in the days that followed, it seems the ever-calculated Katters were simply throwing chook feed rather than hand grenades.
The Katters are testing the major parties, who will likely need their support in the event of a hung Parliament. Labor has said there’s not a chance in fuck that they will support this anti-abortion bill. The LNP can’t say that because there’s a big chance their nameless happy clappers on the backbench very much do support this bill.
Katter loses no votes. Labor loses no votes. Crisafulli loses both his centre and Christian Right. Katter scoops up the latter and Labor gets the former. The KAP are closer than ever to having the balance of power, and the LNP landslide is no more. Fuck the Greens might even get a few up.
Meanwhile, Crisafulli has also been facing backlash for not revealing the costings for his ambitious campaign promises. From the power station roll-outs to the Olympics rebuilds – voters have no idea how this will be paid for if they scrap the Resources Royalties taxes.
But today, the previously protected media darlings of the LNP are being pinched at all angles. They had to say something – about anything.
“Our costings are as follows” read a statement from the LNP moments ago.
“Just like we privatised the energy grid, we will privatise the prisons. There’s big money in letting multinational corporations take control of our justice system. It also means we get paid to lock people up. So our plan to tackle youth crime is also an earner. We have a conveyor belt from the cradle to the cell. The future of Queensland relies on us keeping prisons full of 10-year-olds born to teenage mothers who are banned from getting abortions”
