<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>331888</docID> <postdate>2024-10-28 10:45:16</postdate> <headline>Lessons for Labor after ‘decisive’ loss: treasurer</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-331889" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/20241016129340324731-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="601" /></p> <caption>Senator Murray Watt says federal Labor will be examining the results of the Queensland election. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Andrew Brown</strong> in Canberra</span></p> <p><strong>Labor will heed the lessons from the party's defeat at the Queensland election, the treasurer says, admitting the loss was decisive.</strong></p> <p>Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli will be sworn in on Monday as Queensland's next premier after the party recorded a narrow victory at the polls, ending nine years of Labor rule.</p> <p>While Labor was on track in the polls for an electoral wipe out, the party regained ground as the formal campaign went on.</p> <p>The LNP is on track to win 48 seats in Queensland parliament, with 47 needed for a majority.</p> <p>Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Labor would take stock of the result, ahead of a federal election which is due to be held by May.</p> <p>"The outcome on Saturday night was decisive, but it wasn't unexpected, and there are lessons for us," he told reporters in Canberra on Monday.</p> <p>"Queenslanders are pragmatic and practical people, and the Albanese government is a pragmatic and practical government, but we will go through the lessons from Saturday night."</p> <p>Federal Labor is looking to regain ground in Queensland at the next federal election, with the government only holding just five of the state's 30 electorates.</p> <p>The Queensland election was contested on cost-of-living issue as well as concerns on youth crime.</p> <p>Dr Chalmers said it was not surprising there had been a change of government, with Labor being in power in the Sunshine State for nine years and cost-of-living dominating discussion.</p> <p>"We understand that people are doing it tough, and they express that at the ballot box, which is their right," he said.</p> <p>"We've tried to take a series of well-informed economic decisions, take the right economic decisions for the right reasons, because I believe if you do that, the politics will take care of themselves."</p> <p>Queensland senator and Workplace Minister Murray Watt said the factor of time was against Labor</p> <p>"What (former premier Steven Miles) and Labor were seeking was a fourth term in office, and obviously, every election you win, the next one becomes that much harder," he told ABC Radio.</p> <p>"Clearly, the campaign that the LNP ran on crime, particularly youth crime, did resonate with outer suburban residents and also regional Queenslanders.</p> <p>"But equally, the cost-of-living pressures that people in outer suburban areas experiencing are real, and from a federal point of view, that's why we've put so much effort into this."</p> <p>The Greens went backwards at the election, claiming just a single seat in the state's parliament.</p> <p>Greens leader Adam Bandt said the federal government needed to take responsibility for Queensland Labor's loss.</p> <p>"If it was all about what's happening federally, then clearly (Prime Minister Anthony Albanese) has got some responsibility for the fact that Labor has now just lost government," he told ABC Radio.</p> <p>"If Labor takes the Greens policies and implements them, they're popular, but if Labor spends their time and money fighting the Greens, then the LNP wins."</p> <p>Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the Greens going backwards at the state election came from perceptions about the party federally.</p> <p>"They were shocked by (Greens MP) Max Chandler-Mather standing up, defending the criminal elements off the CFMEU on the back of the truck with a megaphone instead of voting for housing," she told Seven's Sunrise program.</p> <p>"People look at that and go 'these people aren't serious about making progress. They are only about opposition. They're only about making a point'."</p> <p>Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce said the poll showed there had been an electoral divide across the state.</p> <p>"There's a split between regional areas and the western suburbs and the inner urban areas," he told Sunrise.</p> <p>https://citynews.com.au/2024/queenslands-election-offers-lessons-for-everyone/</p> </body>