Greg Roberts
March 21, 2009

ANNA Bligh would be forced to ditch the $2 billion Traveston dam and agree to demands from independent MPs if Labor fails to win enough seats to rule in its own right in today’s Queensland election and she has to form a minority government.

In similar circumstances, Lawrence Springborg would have to renege on his promise that the Liberal National Party would not operate as a minority government if he became premier.

With opinion polls indicating a tight result, prospects are mounting that Labor or the LNP may be forced to rely on independent MPs to form government.

The LNP needs to win 22 seats to be able to rule in its own right but could form a minority government by securing at least 18.

Four independent MPs are expected to be re-elected — Liz Cunningham in Gladstone, Peter Wellington in Nicklin, Chris Foley in Maryborough, and Dorothy Pratt in Nanango.

Ms Cunningham’s support for the Coalition allowed Rob Borbidge to form a minority government when Labor lost the Mundingburra by-election in 1996.

But she said yesterday the LNP could not assume she would support the party after this poll.

Ms Cunningham said the Traveston dam, which she opposes, and the statewide votes received by both parties, would be factors in any decision she made about backing a minority government.

Mr Wellington’s support for Labor allowed Peter Beattie to form a minority government after the 1998 election. Mr Wellington said he had an open mind, but scrapping the Traveston dam would be his chief demand.

“My constituents are passionately against it and I share their sentiments,” he said.

Mr Foley said ditching the dam would be his key demand in any negotiations on forming a minority government, and that he would be keen to see if either side of politics supported the appointment of an independent parliamentary speaker.

Ms Pratt said she expected she would support the LNP, but she was critical of Mr Springborg’s pledge not to form a minority government.

“I hope he hasn’t been lying to the people because that would raise questions about his credibility,” she said.

Greens MP Ronan Lee, who defected from the Government last year, could be re-elected in his seat of Indooroopilly because of a preferences deal with Labor.

Mr Lee said the ALP would need to ditch the Traveston dam to win his support.

“A close election result means the dam is gone,” he said.

Following an electoral redistribution, One Nation is expected to lose its sole remaining MP nationally with the defeat of the member for Tablelands, Rosa Lee Long.

But the party’s founder, Pauline Hanson, is given an outside chance of winning the seat of Beaudesert, which she is contesting as an independent, because of Queensland’s optional preferential voting system. Ms Hanson said she would be prepared to negotiate with either side of politics.

“I will have a look at the views of the parties and talk to the electorate about what they thought,” she said.

Ms Hanson’s campaign was put in the national spotlight when she denied she was the young woman shown in lewd photographs published in several Sunday newspapers.

Ms Hanson won the federal seat of Oxley in 1996 and lost it in 1998; she has since tried four times without success to be elected to parliament.