Northern exposure: Labor makes election beeline for Queensland
Labor is hoping a focus on the Queensland tourism industry will help it march onto the Treasury benches after the state told the party to pack its bags at the last election.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has been on the campaign trail in the Sunshine State since the weekend, spruiking the failures of the federal government throughout the pandemic and the impact it has had on industry.
āThree sectors that have missed out from this government are tourism, the arts and higher education. And tourism needs to be a sector thatās valued,ā he said on Tuesday.
āWhen this government was first elected, they forgot to appoint a tourism minister. That says it all.ā
The $28 billion Queensland tourism industry employs one in 11 workers in the state, or 234,000 Queenslanders, directly and indirectly.
It is undoubtedly a market Labor wants to tap in to as the party targets federal seats like Flynn, Longman, Capricornia, Leichhardt and Herbert, along the coastline north of Brisbane.
āWe ā¦ need to ensure that tourism is a career (and) itās not seen as something that people just do on a casual basis while theyāre at uni,ā the Labor leader said.
āItās something that builds careers, itās a major export for Australia and itās something that should be valued.ā
The Nationals continue to counter attacks on their seats in Queensland, where three of their MPs are retiring, by focusing on coal jobs and Laborās climate policy.
Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is also trying to capitalise on the unpopularity that faced then opposition leader Bill Shorten in the state during the 2019 campaign.
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āYou havenāt got the ticker to stand behind your coal miners,ā he said.
āAlbo, youāre a goose. Wrong place, wrong part of the country. Go back to Sydney.ā
The deputy prime minister also went on the offensive after Mr Albanese spoke out about Covid-19 conspiracy comments made by retiring Nationals MP George Christensen.
Albanese said the ādangerous and recklessā comments put health at risk.
Joyce said attacking Christensen would only score ābrownie pointsā in Sydney.
āSo, go back down to where youāre wanted,ā he said.
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