Qld: Labor deserves poll slump, Beattie says

AAP General News (Australia)
12-18-2000
Qld: Labor deserves poll slump, Beattie says

By Barbara Adam, State Political Correspondent

BRISBANE, Dec 18 AAP - The Queensland Labor Party deserved the slump in support revealed
by the latest public opinion poll, Premier Peter Beattie said today.

The latest Newspoll, published in today's Australian, revealed support for the state
Labor Party had dropped six per cent to 43 per cent.

The survey, taken over a three-month period to December when the government was being
battered by the vote-rigging scandal and the Shepherdson Inquiry, showed support had drifted
from Labor to the Australian Democrats, One Nation, City-Country Alliance and independents.

Support for the Coalition remained steady at 39 per cent, with only 19 per cent of
those surveyed believing Opposition leader Rob Borbidge would make a better premier.

Support for Mr Beattie as premier, however, remained high at 58 per cent.

Mr Beattie said the Newspoll figures showed voters did not consider the state opposition
a reasonable alternative to Labor.

"This is a warning sign for the government and the party that we've got to continue
to do what we started to do and that is to clean up the rorters and to clean up the party,"

he told a news conference.

Mr Beattie said the result of the opinion poll was "a reality check".

"The Labor Party deserves to have lost that vote because of the shenanigans that have
been revealed before the Shepherdson Inquiry," he said.

The poll was also a sign that the next state election would closely resemble a US presidential
election, he said, with a major focus on party leaders.

"It will come down to a choice between Rob Borbidge and I," he said.

"It's an alternative between my government and a mish-mash of independents, One Nation,
City-Country Alliance, Liberal Party, National Party and any other party in some sort
of unworkable arrangement with Rob Borbidge as Premier, a rag-tag coalition of all sorts."

Mr Beattie said the opinion poll did not change the likely date of the next state election,
because he hadn't decided when it would be.

Mr Borbidge declined to comment on the result of the poll.

AAP bja/jhm/cd/de

KEYWORD: POLL QLD NIGHTLEAD (WITH AUDIO)

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