On Saturday 28 March, as well as the local council elections, there were two by-elections in the state electorates of Bundamba and Currumbin.
Both electorates had a retiring member who voted against their party's position on the abortion Bill in 2018. In Bundamba, Mrs Jo-Ann Miller was the only Labor MP to vote against the Bill, and in Currumbin, the LNP's Mrs Jann Stuckey, was one of three LNP MPs who voted for Labor's abortion-to-birth Bill.
In Bundamba, Labor pre-selected a hard-left associate of the pro-abortion Deputy Premier Jackie Trad, while One Nation - the only party which could have stolen the seat from Labor according to political analysts - pre-selected a strongly pro-life candidate, Sharon Bell.
The pro-life fight was on. Going into the by-election, Labor held the seat with a comfortable 71.6% of the two-party preferred vote.
Cherish Life ran a "Put Labor Last" campaign against the new Labor candidate. We letterboxed, ran local advertising, campaigned on social media and worked with local community leaders. A BIG THANK YOU for those wonderful people who letterboxed!
The result was an 11.2% swing against Labor's primary vote, which is particularly significant and large in Labor heartland. About a week prior to the election, a political commentator from Griffith University said that if the swing against Labor in the Bundamba by-election was more than 5%, it would show they have a real problem. By contrast in the seat of Currumbin, Labor received a 2.7% swing towards it on the primary vote.
While acknowledging there are many factors at play at any election and a by-election is no different, we are still very pleased with the results - it sends a real message to Labor: the killing of human beings (whether born or unborn) has to stop.
At the most recent parliamentary sitting on 22 April, Opposition Leader of Business Jarrod Bleijie pointed out the devastating result for Labor in Bundamba: “I understand why the Labor Party in Queensland would not want to talk about the results in Bundamba, because they were smashed when their own voters turned against them. When you have more Green voters preferencing One Nation in Bundamba, you have real problems in Queensland.”
It is indeed unheard of to have the majority of Greens voters in any electorate preference One Nation Party ahead of Labor!
Mr Bleijie also said: “If that is replicated across the state in a few months, Labor will be wiped out at the next election.”
The Bundamba by-election, politically speaking, was a gift for Cherish Life to test strategy and messaging leading up to the October 2020 state election.
Although Labor managed to hold the seat, Bundamba has gone from being Labor's 3rd safest seat to it's 13th safest (from 71.6% to 59.8%). Well done team! Perhaps we'll be able to help unseat Labor in Bundamba at October 2020 state election, provided the candidate most likely to take the seat from Labor is pro-life.
CLICK HERE to volunteer for letterboxing at the October 2020 election.
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