PETER VAN ONSELEN: Listen to the painful spin Albo’s team used to play down Queensland election loss. Only now the crushing reality is dawning

Listening to the Labor coverage on the night of the Queensland election and in the days that followed was a clear example of attempts to hide a poor election result in plain sight.

During ABC’s coverage on Saturday evening, federal Labor minister Annika Wells was allowed to wax lyrical about how disappointing the LNP’s victory was, as it came about thanks to three Labor terms in power.

She stressed that at best the state’s opposition would only cross the line, which was terribly bad after nine years of a Labor government.

‘What we see here is that the LNP has been too busy measuring the curtains, wrapping themselves in cotton wool, running a little targeted campaign, more focused on making life just as easy on the other side of getting of the keys than going out. and win a mandate from Queenslanders first,” Wells said.

But based on current seat projections, the LNP is likely to win 53 seats (47 is a majority). Labor is unlikely to win more than 34 seats (just 64 percent of the LNP total).

That’s a stronger, more emphatic victory on the numbers than Anthony Albanese’s victory over Scott Morrison in the 2022 federal election, where Labor won 77 seats (a slim majority) and the Coalition 58 (75 percent of Labor’s total).

And it was after three terms of the Coalition in power, the same as Labor in Queensland.

Does Wells think Albo limped over the line with a weak win in 2022, as his victory was less emphatic compared to what happened on Saturday night?

Of course, Wells was not held responsible for the hypocrisy of such statements, nor for the outright inaccuracy of the comments.

Now that the absurdity of claiming the LNP’s victory was slim is crystal clear, Labor has found a new twist to justify the result: the Greens were the real losers on Saturday.

It doesn’t matter that the Greens’ primary held while the Labor primary fell by seven percentage points.

And the fact that the Greens have not won more seats is entirely down to the LNP making the principled decision to favor the small party.

Otherwise, the LNP preferences would have given the Greens some new victories over Labour.

Will the federal Labor Party want to do the same and favor the Greens like the Queensland LNP did? Considering it is so impressed with the consequences?

Of course not. What I don’t mind: Parties can be electorally strategic in the way they prefer if they want to.

Just don’t pretend that the Greens’ demise at the hands of the LNP is some kind of moral victory for Labour.

Because those are the lines printed on Labour’s talking points for federal MPs in the wake of the Queensland loss.

Voters are aware that the Greens cannot deliver what Labor can achievethe talking points claim.

Senator Murray Watt stuck to that script yesterday.

Real? Why then did Labor lose the election and the Greens’ primaries remain intact?

Apart from the spin, what are the real implications of Saturday’s LNP victory?

Peter Dutton will hope that new Prime Minister David Crisafulli will not do anything too radical between now and next May’s federal election, which could turn voters away from the party brand they share.

It’s unlikely Crisafulli will do that, given the reaction to Campbell Newman’s antics after his 2012 state victory.

Dutton could even benefit from the halo effect of Crisafulli still enjoying a political honeymoon during the next federal election. In the same way Albo capitalized on WA Premier Mark McGowan’s popularity in the wake of the pandemic in the 2022 election.

But no one will ever be as popular in Australian politics as McGowan was at the time. And Crisafulli could even make Dutton’s life difficult when it comes to nuclear power.

He has already said he is against the idea, the central policy platform announced by the federal opposition leader so far.

Furthermore, Queensland voters have traditionally elected one major party at the state level and another at the federal level.

Given that the Coalition holds the lion’s share of Queensland seats federally (21 seats compared to just five for Labour), Dutton will desperately hope Queenslanders don’t try to balance major party representation any time soon.

Chances are they won’t. Anthony Albanese is unpopular in Queensland and Dutton is a Queenslander.

But it’s always a risk.