Queensland will be a crucial state for the federal government at the next election. Several seats once considered safe for the major parties are no longer easy wins and are being targeted by the minor parties and independents backed by the Climate 200 group. Alexandra Blucho reports with Megan Haslett.
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Leah Stacpoole: If you do meet anybody, tell them what you're doing. Tell them that we're looking for the candidate for the Macpherson electorate.
Alexandra ABC: It's a sunny winter's day on the Gold Coast in the federal electorate of McPherson. It takes in suburbs like Burleigh Heads, Robina and the community here in Currumbin.
Leah Stacpoole: People are feeling really tired and disappointed with the sort of sport that goes on with the major parties. And that's actually why they want a candidate who will think long-term and will not get into divisive politics. And we're just letterboxing today.
Alexandra ABC: Leah Stacpoole is one of the founders of McPherson Independent. They're on the search for a candidate for the next federal election.
Leah Stacpoole: People are actually looking for a candidate that is a community and a business leader, that actually comes from this community.
Alexandra ABC: This is the first time a community group backed by Climate 200 has been active in this seat. Ms Stacpoole says they intend to run a positive campaign on climate issues and cost of living.
Leah Stacpoole: We're seeing people, we're getting to know people who are families who are sleeping in their cars, and we just feel like that shouldn't be happening in this rich country that we have and not in our community as well.
Alexandra ABC: Climate 200 says there are similarities between Fairfax and Macpherson and those seats won by the independents in fact in the last election.
Byron Fay: They're all really safe seats and that really underpinned why they're actually quite vulnerable because when you're a safe seat you get very little for it and people woke up to that fact in places like Kooyong and in the in the ACT Senate with David Pocock in Wentworth with Allegra Spender.
John Black: You're seeing the same sort of thing here in Queensland. Where there's a strong LNP vote in one of those Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast seats, they're ripe for the taking, particularly if they've got a strong base of professional women who are quite prodigious networkers.
And the old-fashioned two-party preferred pendulum doesn't apply anymore. It's on for young and old.