{"id":4732,"date":"2026-05-05T00:11:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T00:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/4732\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T00:11:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T00:11:15","slug":"early-voting-opens-in-stafford-by-election-with-three-main-issues-to-sway-votes-in-queensland-state-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/4732\/","title":{"rendered":"Early voting opens in Stafford by-election with three main issues to sway votes in Queensland state seat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Battle lines for a state by-election in Brisbane’s north have been drawn on fuel, health, and the cost of living.<\/p>\n

Early voting opens today for the more than 41,000 voters in the Stafford electorate, ahead of polling day on May 16.<\/p>\n

The contest was sparked by the death of independent MP Jimmy Sullivan<\/a>, whose body was found at his home in non-suspicious circumstances last month.<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old had sat on the crossbench after he was ousted from the Labor caucus last year, following scrutiny over his personal life.<\/p>\n

Stafford, encompassing suburbs including Kedron, Chermside, and Stafford Heights, is Labor heartland.<\/p>\n

Residents are largely young families, renters, and tertiary educated.<\/p>\n

Issues front of mind for voters’ echo those felt across Queensland.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Voters (L-R) Kyle Daniel, Anthony Williamson and Sharon Wootton say they’re worried about rising living costs. (ABC NEWS: Mark Leonardi)<\/p>\n

“Fuel costs, housing costs, and food costs, all going up at the moment,” local Anthony Williamson told the ABC.<\/p>\n

“Fuel prices, they keep going up, rates as well,” Sharon Wootton said.<\/p>\n

“Cost of living, definitely, public transport is unreliable as well,” Kyle Daniel said.<\/p>\n

‘Cutting to the bone’<\/p>\n

Sullivan won Stafford in the 2024 state election with a margin of more than 5 per cent, and Labor has held it for nine of the last 10 polls.<\/p>\n

Luke Richmond, the party’s recent Queensland assistant state secretary, is hoping to continue that dominance.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Labor candidate for Stafford Luke Richmond wants to extend the party’s dominance in the seat. (ABC News: Sarah Richards)<\/p>\n

The lawyer wants to make the contest a referendum on health.<\/p>\n

“The LNP are a government that said they weren’t going to make cuts to health, but the reality is that they are cutting to the bone,” he said.<\/p>\n

“People are really frustrated with a government that they see as being all talk and no action, all photo op, no follow-up.”<\/p>\n

Kos Samaras, pollster and director of the RedBridge Group, said Labor should “hold the seat comfortably”.<\/p>\n

“It’s a very progressive part of Brisbane and increasingly becoming so. The left side of politics in this seat is quite significant.”<\/p>\n

Fuel focus for LNP<\/p>\n

LNP candidate Fiona Hammond and the government was squarely focused on the fuel crisis.<\/p>\n

Premier David Crisafulli announced the date of the by-election from a service station and for several weeks spruiked his team’s efforts on fuel security.<\/p>\n

Ms Hammond, a former Brisbane City councillor, contested the last state election, recording a more than 6 per cent swing to the LNP.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

LNP candidate for Stafford Fiona Hammond says Queenslanders want fuel security. (ABC News: Lucas Hill)<\/p>\n

She said there were three main things on Stafford locals’ minds.<\/p>\n

“They’re talking about fuel security. They’re talking about the cost of living, and they’re also talking about crime.<\/p>\n

“We want us to have our own fuel reserves right here in Queensland, so we’re not reliant on overseas fuel.”<\/p>\n

Mr Samaras said any further significant swing to the LNP in the by-election would be “quite seismic”.<\/p>\n

“That will indicate that they are starting to make inroads into Brisbane,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The LNP is doing really well outside of Brisbane, but in places like this, in seats like this, the Labor Party is still holding up its primary vote.”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The LNP has historically faced an uphill battle to take the Stafford seat.\u00a0 (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

No preference deal for the Greens<\/p>\n

Also throwing her hat in the ring for another tilt is Jess Lane of the Greens.<\/p>\n

The teacher won a healthy 18 per cent primary vote at the last state election and said there was one main thing residents were concerned about.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jess Lane, from the Greens, wants to impose rent caps to help with the cost of living. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“Cost of living hands down, particularly around housing and rents,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to be fighting to cap rents and improve the cost of living for families who are really doing it tough in the community.”<\/p>\n

The Greens will not be directing voters on how to preference their votes.<\/p>\n

One Nation steers clear<\/p>\n

A notable absence in a crowded field of nine candidates is One Nation.<\/p>\n

Leader Pauline Hanson said the party’s focus was on the next state election in 2028.<\/p>\n

Mr Samaras described Stafford, and seats like it, as having a “demographic barrier” for the surging minor party.<\/p>\n

“Anything that is in an urban area with high numbers of young professionals, a very large number of people who are renting, is obviously very difficult political terrain for them,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Battle lines for a state by-election in Brisbane’s north have been drawn on fuel, health, and the cost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,5968,5967,211,212,5485,5966],"class_list":{"0":"post-4732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-austrlia","10":"tag-fiona-hammond","11":"tag-luke-richmond","12":"tag-qld","13":"tag-queensland","14":"tag-stafford","15":"tag-stafford-by-elections"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}