Queensland Voters Swing Left and Far Right for a Labor Landslide
Voters delivered a devastating election-year blow to Prime Minister John Howard’s conservatives in a state ballot Saturday, deserting in droves to the far right and giving the leftist Labor Party a landslide.
Howard’s Liberal-National coalition suffered substantial losses in Australia’s second-largest state, Queensland.
Discontent at free-market reforms that have hurt the region, along with a new 10% goods and services tax and rising fuel prices, lay at the root of the disaffection.
The conservative vote splintered among far-right parties, including the anti-Asian immigration One Nation led by Pauline Hanson.
With results suggesting that Queensland Labor Party leader Peter Beattie would return to power with 68 of the state parliament’s 89 seats, the National Party’s Rob Borbidge swiftly conceded defeat.
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