Why Crisafulli should study Borbidge govt, not Newman government

Governments need to continually remind voters why they were elected, why they are doing what they are doing, and they need a neat phrase that sums it all up.

This government also seems to thinks that actions speak louder than words and keeps a low profile.

And then there was One Nation. One Nation is poison for the centre-right, particularly in an optional preferential voting system.

While One Nation takes voters from both LNP and Labor, it skews LNP, making its preferences more critical to them.

In OP the risk you run is that voters will just vote 1 and not allocate preferences, so you have to pitch for those preferences. With a lot of urban voters regarding One Nation as toxic, touting for their preferences transfers the toxicity to you.

And it gets worse. In most Queensland elections the margins are a few seats either side. In 1998, One Nation won 11 seats – 6 from the ALP and 5 from the Coalition.

That meant the Coalition couldn't form a government without an arrangement with One Nation, and any such coalition was not acceptable to the majority of voters.

Today One Nation might even win more seats. In 1998 their federal vote was around 12% while the latest polls today say it is more than twice as high.

History shows that federally One Nation was not a major problem for John Howard. That was because ultimately he addressed the concerns of One Nation voters, and they became Howard Battlers.

The Crisafulli government has time to adjust.

Traditionally One Nation is driven by race, immigration and the economy. When Redbridge Polling last week measured public perceptions on the parties and issues One Nation was only ahead on one issue – immigration.

Does this issue translate from the federal to the state? I think it does. The federal government controls the flow, but our state governments have to deal with the oncosts – unaffordable housing, homelessness, not enough frontline workers, too few hospitals, schools and on and on.