Brisbane is shaping up to be a three-way battleground seat and the electorate has taken centre stage on the first day of the campaign.
While Dutton is a Queenslander, it’s no coincidence that he launched the Coalition’s campaign in the seat of Brisbane, a Greens-held seat that both Labor and the LNP have their eyes on.
The LNP’s candidate Trevor Evans previously held the seat, but it was lost to the Greens’ Stephen Bates, who came third in the first preference vote, but swept to victory on the back of preferences.
In his campaign launch press conference, Greens leader Adam Bandt was asked for his thoughts on the possibility the minor party could lose the three seats it picked up in Queensland’s capital in 2025. Both major parties are set to target Brisbane, while Labor will hope to regain Griffith and the Liberals will similarly want to retake Ryan.
“We expect that,” Bandt said. “That’s happened at the end of my first term in Melbourne. We saw them decide that they would work together on preferences, they would throw everything at the seat.”
Bandt said the local MPs in Brisbane had worked “incredibly hard” to support the community and deliver.
