As Queensland approaches its 2024 state election, the parties are intensifying their efforts to engage voters and outline their visions for the future. We read all the news surrounding the election so you don’t have to, here’s what we found.
Each week, we track the commitments made by the major political parties through their media releases, providing insights into their priorities and strategies as they vie for support from the electorate. All figures have been annualised; that is, if a promise was costed at $10 million over 10 years, the value recorded is $1 million. This helps fairly compare one-off projects with longer-term initiatives.
The Liberal National party has made 122 official funding and policy announcements to Labors 48, and the Greens 6 in the campaign period so far (up to the 14th of October 2024).
The most expensive campaign promise so far? The LNP’s Unlock Homes for Queensland’s Future policy, which aims to build 1 million homes by 2044 with $2 billion pledged each year. This is likely to be paid out of the 12 billion promised to be saved by scrapping the Pioneer-Burdekin Pumped Hydro project.
Labor’s most expensive pre-campaign promise was a $1.6 billion expansion of Redlands public hospital.
Out of coverage that mentioned “Queensland election”, in the past 30 days across Australian online and print - Steven Miles has received the most media coverage by just over 200 mentions, and was responsible for 15% of announcements. This is despite 69% of funding announcements coming from the LNP, and 30% from David Crisafulli specifically.
State Party Leader Mention Volumes - Election Coverage in the Last 30 Days
(Streem Data: Online and Print mentions, grouped syndications 16/09/34 - 15/10/24)
Most election promises were directed at statewide initiatives, but Rockhampton received the most announcements in this period, with 8. There were 5 from the LNP and 3 from the ALP, with both parties committing $100 million each to build a high school in Gracemere.
At 20%, the Sporting sector received the most total announcements across all parties, with Labor committing $27,700,000 per year so far, and the NLP announcing $580 million in sports-related funding - $250 million pledged for both Grassroots Sport Club Upgrades and the Games On! Community Sports Program. In part due to the upcoming 2032 Olympics set to be hosted in Brisbane, to boost participation and “inspire the next generation of Olympians and Paralympians”.
12% of all funding promises were for the education sector, 12% for infrastructure, and 11% in crime and health initatives, respectively.
The media coverage of the Queensland election in the last 30 days however mentioned the sport sector less than 200 times, while crime was mentioned alongside the election over 1,000 times.
Sector Mention Volumes - Election Coverage in the Last 30 Days
(Streem Data: Online and Print mentions, 16/09/34 - 15/10/24)