Firstly, thanks to Family First’s 59 candidates and hundreds of volunteers.
It takes courage to take a pro-family, pro-life position to the ballot when both the LNP and Labor falsely say your views are “extremist”.
This was Family First’s biggest outing in Queensland and the party has achieved more than 4pc in 10 of the electorates contested.
In most seats Family First polled a very credible 2-3pc, including in traditional Labor areas like Logan and Woodridge which confirms family policy concerns transcend left and right.
To achieve such a good result in our come-back election is testament to the hard work of our Queensland Campaign Director Alex Todd, State Chair Simon Green and the large volunteer team that was mobilised.
While Family First took a strong cost of living and religious freedom message into the campaign, one of our core concerns - human rights for unborn babies - dominated the election.
It’s rare for this sensitive but important unresolved issue to be discussed so prominently in Australian politics.
A major reason was the work of the Australian Christian Lobby in helping facilitate whistle-blower midwife Louise Adsett’s appearance at a Parliamentary inquiry back in August.
She wept as she gave first-hand accounts of babies routinely surviving abortions and then being left to die, often gasping for breath for hours.
Robbie Katter’s Katters’ Australia Party has vowed to introduce “born alive” legislation requiring medical care to be rendered to such babies.
It’s a modest request in a state that allows abortion-to-birth, even when there is a healthy mother and baby.
It should not have been difficult for LNP leader David Crisafulli to say the extreme elements of Queensland’s abortion law need to be looked at.
Instead, he tied himself in knots and played into Labor’s scare campaign by looking shifty until he finally committed the LNP to a unity ticket with Labor and the Greens on abortion-to-birth.
This is a Rubicon crossed by the LNP which has always made room, even if grudgingly, for pro-lifers.
Family First now stands as the only truly pro-life party registered in Queensland.
Family First’s result is also pleasing in a state where the pro-euthanasia One Nation party takes a big slice of the disenfranchised conservative vote.
With saving babies and their mothers from the horrors of late abortion off the table, what an in-coming Crisafulli government does to fix other egregious social policy clangers left by Labor will be interesting.
Crisafulli’s in-coming Attorney General Tim Nicholls told Parliament he thinks biological men who identify as women in women’s prisons is fine.
Will the LNP’s heart be in repealing Labor’s anti-female gender self ID laws? I hope so but am not holding my breath.
The LNP has also been largely silent about Labor’s so-called Respect at Work laws which can land people with normal views on gender and marriage in legal hot water, particularly in churches and Christian schools.
Queensland is in $170 billion of debt but Crisafulli has ruled out cuts to the bloated public service so budget repair will be hard and that means continued pressure on cost of living.
While foolishly anti-nuclear, at least Crisafulli belatedly recognised that windmills and solar panels don’t work and has vowed to keep coal generation going indefinitely.
This was after he bizarrely backed Labor’s 70pc unachievable emissions reduction legislation.
Reality is biting in Australia’s mind-numbingly stupid energy debate.
Everyone loves free stuff from the government but with so much red ink on the books, Labor’s 50 cent public transport fares, $1000 electricity rebates, free school lunches and state-owned petrol stations are the path to a banana republic.
A silver lining of last night’s election result was the collapse of the Greens vote and the loss of their two seats.
However, with Labor out-greening the Greens on socialism and the LNP joining them on abortion-to-birth, the Greens have been so successful in getting their nutty policies taken up by the major parties there is no reason for voters to vote for them.
The drift of the major parties to the Green-Left is all the more reason why Family First’s resurgence is essential.
It was a joy to have our positive vision for family, faith, freedom and life on the ballot.
We are back and we are determined to keep offering hope for families.
Thanks again to Alex, Simon, the courageous 59 candidates and every volunteer and donor who gave mainstream values a voice at this election.
– Lyle Shelton, Family First National Director.
Below are Family First results as of last night’s incomplete count. More results are at the Electoral Commission of Queensland website.
Algester - 2.6
Aspley - 1.9
Bonney - 2.5
Broadwater - 3.09
Bundamba - 3.03
Burdekin - 3
Burleigh - 1.5
Callide - 2.9
Chatsworth - 2.4
Condamine - 5.84
Coomera - 4.93
Cooper - 1
Currumbin - 1.2
Gaven - 1.8
Gladstone - 2.5
Glasshouse - 2.8
Greenslopes - 1.3
Gregory - 4.74
Ipswich - 4.76
Ipswich West - 4.25
Keppel - 2.6
Kurwongbah - 3.97
Lockyer - 5.02
Logan - 3.4
Lytton - 2.2
Macalister - 4.26
Mackay - 2.3
Mansfield - 2.9
Maryborough - 2.7
McConnel - 1
Mermaid Beach - 3.96
Merani - 2.8
Morayfield - 3
Mudgeeraba - 3.5
Mulgrave - 2.2
Murrumba - 2
Nanango - 2.2
Nicklin - 4.9
Noosa - 1.4
Nudgee - 1.6
Pumistone - 1.9
Redlands - 1.9
Rockhampton - 2.4
Sandgate - 1.8
Scenic Rim - 3.34
Southern Downs - 3.99
Southport - 3.37
Springwood - 3.2
Stafford - 1.9
Stretton - 1.9
Surfers Paradise - 2.1
Theodore - 3.05
Toowoomba North - 3.9
Toowoomba South - 4.4
Townsville - 1.5
Warrego - 5.36
Waterford - 3.8
Whitsunday - 2.8
Woodridge - 4.32