Brisbane election shows us there’s not much joy chasing inner-city voters

This LNP council talks about parks and bike tracks, spends extravagant amounts of money on "green" pedestrian bridges across the Brisbane River, and boasts about its low-emissions public transport strategies.

A similar approach has been adopted by the state LNP under leader David Crisafulli.

Even with this lime green face, they are losing ground to the Greens in the centre of the city, along with the Labor Party.

Why? Because the Greens aren't really about conservation at all, they are a revolutionary party that appeals to the young, well-educated and moderately wealthy who lack practical life experience, and they leverage envy for votes.

The eccentric Greens lord mayoral candidate, Jonathan Sriranganathan, boasts about living on a houseboat and has expressed empathy, and arguably encouragement, for people who squat in vacant properties and/or shoplift.

These voters don't like the LNP, but equally, they dislike Labor as well, and the harder Labor tries to court them, the worse it gets for Labor.

What's happening in working-class areas like Inala, Wynnum, and Ipswich West? They feel deserted by Labor, and unlike many of the city elites who vote for the Greens, they don't have a wealth buffer against the cost of living, nor are they revolutionary.

Outer city voters are also closer to the LNP in world view, and the LNP is starting to move closer to them.

Running on public dissatisfaction

It has always puzzled me that non-Anglo migrant communities have tended to vote for Labor. The values of risk-taking that bring them here, and the thrift, enterprise and application they show when they arrive, align with Liberal, not modern Labor values.

Perhaps it comes down to something as simple as Labor being friendlier to them.

In Inala, a seat where Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees settled after the Vietnam War, the Liberals ran Trang Yen, a Vietnamese refugee who arrived here in 1985. The ALP, endorsed one of Palaszczuk's staffers as their candidate, one of the clique.

Ms. Trang is an Australian success story, the kind of story that many parents in Inala actually want for their children. She had no influential parent to serve her future up to her on a silver platter, like the former state member and premier, and on her own merits has risen to become the acting CFO for Trade and Investment Queensland.