Late Surge For Thinking KAP

From the Australian:

A LATE surge in support for Bob Katter’s Australian Party has set the stage for it to win seats today in One Nation’s former heartland of regional Queensland.

The party has lifted its support to 9 per cent statewide in today’s Newspoll, nearly double what it registered at the start of the campaign.

KAP’s base vote spikes to 12 per cent outside Brisbane, putting it in the running to win up to five non-metropolitan seats, said Newspoll chief executive Martin O’Shannessy.

This suggests Mr Katter has attracted part of the blue-collar base of Labor in the regions as well as more conservative supporters of the Liberal National Party.

Hmmmm.

“Blue collar base of Labor”.

“More conservative supporters of the LNP”.

Salt of the earth.

Go QUEENSLANDERS!

UPDATE:

From the hustings -

Mr Katter, who was handing out how-to-vote cards with his son and Mount Isa candidate Rob, said he was impressed with the progress his party had made since it was formed less than a year ago.

“About a week ago I realised that we’ve got a huge, powerful machine out there,” he told AAP.

“It’s working now completely independently of me. It was a bit of a ramshackle thing put together on my back, but it’s not now.

“Every poll that comes out, our vote has increased. There’s some that have us on nine per cent, there’s some that have us on 28 per cent.”

Mr Katter said his party was now a legitimate option for voters.

“The important thing is to provide Australia with an alternative to the free trader or traitor policies of the major parties,” he said.

“It may well be that they get rid of the ALP today, but they won’t get rid of the ALP policies.”

Federal Liberal MP George Christensen tweets:

An insightful observation, and a perfect analogy:

[KAP state leader] Mr McLindon said it was now up to the voters but he hoped they would put into State Parliament a corrective against the expected overwhelming force of a new LNP government.

“Do the people really want a massive LNP government breaking promises the way they are doing in NSW?” Mr McLindon said.

“‘Or do they want a band of people in there like the KAP who will keep the bastards honest?”

Bob Katter, who will be in Brisbane tonight, said his aim in trying to establish a third political force was to break out of the “Woolies and Coles” cycle of Australian politics.