During his campaign in the Sunshine Coast seat of Kawana, Queensland Premier Steven Miles had an embarrassing gaffe when he completely forgot the name of the Labour candidate.
People wanted to know why the local candidate wasn’t standing at his side during today’s news conference.
“Ah, well I’ll be campaigning on Sunshine Coast seats all day so stay tuned,” added Miles.
The next question was to find out the candidate’s name.
“That’s an excellent question,” he remarked as he perused the documents.
As he asked Health Minister Shannon Fentiman whether she knew who was running for the Kawana seat, Miles pivoted to her.
“We’ll bring that to you,” he promised. “And I’ll be with them later.” Jim Dawson, the Labour Party’s candidate for Kawana, failed to appear.
Just last week, Miles committed the same error when he failed to remember Susan Teder’s name—a Mirani Labour candidate.
The other side experienced a similar setback.
“One way to make it happen is to vote for the LNP in this election,” Donna Kirkland of the LNP stated during a news conference.
A candidate from Rockhampton has stated on social media that abortion is the worst violation of human rights in modern times and has promoted anti-abortion petitions.
She made it plain that they had ruled it out when questioned if that was still their belief.
“We’ve ruled it out,” meaning it isn’t part of our plan. After being questioned about her veiled remark, Kirkland started to dismiss the journalists’ enquiries. Questioners wanted to know what she didn’t intend.
“The questions that have been asked are not part of our plans,” said the woman.
The Katter Party, on the other hand, intends to hold an abortion vote, while the LNP convention is planning to let its members the right to vote according to their consciences.
In other words, right-wing lawmakers might band together to repeal the laws as they are. But today, Kirkland appeared to rule out a vote based on conscience.
“We have eliminated it,” she stated.
David Crisafulli, leader of the opposition, chimed in to answer the questions.
“You can ask me those questions,” he said.
“Not part of our plan and we’ve ruled it out.”
Take advantage of the LNP’s hesitancy, and Miles will announce $20 million to fund more abortion services and prenatal scans.