Queensland election results: Polls close as scrupulous election result anticipated

Polls have closed in Queensland, marking an anxious wait for the two leaders who want to claim the top job in the next government.

More than 3.6 million people have cast their ballots and now the count begins to determine whether Labor will maintain its government or the Liberal National Party will step in.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli was left to end the Labor government’s nine-year rule after dominating early polls, but Premier Steven Miles.

People vote in voting booths at a polling station

The Queensland election looks set for a photo finish after four weeks of campaigning. Source: AAP / Darren England

A Courier Mail exit poll of 2,000 voters across the state revealed the LNP won 33.9% of the vote, with Labor trailing on 33.6%.

In Brisbane on Saturday, Miles and his wife Kim cast their vote at Kallangur State School, while Crisafulli and his wife Tegan cast their vote at Springwood State High School.

Crisafulli spent the day visiting places on the Gold Coast and north Brisbane to spread the message that Queenslanders “deserve more than what you get”.

Meanwhile, the incumbent prime minister has been fighting to win a mandate in his own right after taking over from Annastacia Palaszczuk after she stepped down at the end of 2023.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli made a last-minute pitch to voters on Saturday morning. Source: AAP / Jono Searle

Miles wanted a chance to deliver on the promises he made to Queenslanders, he told reporters after his 36 places in a 36-hour blitz.

But the last-ditch effort to persuade voters may have been in vain after nearly two million people cast their ballots early.

It wasn’t all quiet on polling day as Traeger MP Robbie Katter called in lawyers for a corflute, claiming Katter’s Australian Party had struck a deal with Labor.

“Lying and mudslinging is the refuge of the intellectually bankrupt – it’s what you do when you’ve got nothing else,” Katter said of the PNL he accused of setting the sign.

“If this is how they intend to govern the state, it’s a really poor sign.”

Premier Steven Miles cast his vote after a blitz of dozens of seats in the final days of the campaign. Source: AAP / Darren England

The LNP is aiming to form its first government since Campbell Newman’s 2012-15 tenure, which paved the way for nine years of Labour.

What were the issues the parties campaigned on?

Both leaders campaigned strongly on key election issues, youth crime, housing, health and cost of living pressures.

But in the past two weeks after an MP promised to repeal the legislation if elected.

Abortion was decriminalized in Queensland in 2018.

Crisafulli has come under enormous pressure over the past two weeks, repeatedly refusing to explain how he would guarantee abortion laws would not change.

It coincided with the PNL falling in the polls.

The latest Newspoll conducted for The Australian showed that Miles was rated as a better prime minister at 45% compared to 42% for Crisafulli.

But the PNL remained in the lead on a two-party preference basis, at 52 per cent to Labour’s 47 per cent.

Labor has 51 seats and LNP 35.

A party needs 47 seats for a majority government.