PLAN AHEAD: Leader of the Opposition in Queensland Annastacia Palaszczuk. Source: The Courier-Mail
IT'S hard to believe just 12 months ago Labor was still a force in State Parliament.
The break-neck pace set in the Campbell Newman era has quickly consigned Labor's reign to little more than a fading memory.
Newman and his Government have been, and continue to be, the dominant story, even at times when they would rather not be.
The administration's omnipresence has meant Labor's lowly position has almost gone unnoticed, apart from the odd gag in Parliament about them using a maxi taxi to ferry their seven MPs around.
However, at some point soon Labor will have to begin plotting a path out of the electoral mire in which they find themselves.
It would be fatal for Labor to sit back this term with a risk-averse approach and assume a natural correction will occur at the next election.
All 16 seats the LNP holds by less than 5 per cent (except Maryborough) were considered safe Labor territory before 2012.
However, with voters becoming increasingly disenfranchised from party politics and voting for individuals, both leaders and local representatives, there is no guarantee Labor will ever regain them.
The Nationals and Liberals learnt this lesson harshly at the 2004 state election.
They regained just five seats in total (two from former One Nation MPs) at that election and Labor's high-water mark of 66 MPs fell by just three.
Seats such as Clayfield, Indooroopilly, Kawana and Toowoomba North remained in Labor's hands.
Labor had held such seats partly because the conservatives were considered incompetent. However, a "dig-in" strategy instituted by then premier Peter Beattie and wily campaigner John Mickel worked a treat.
After the 2001 election, Labor MPs considered "oncers" were told to go to everything from an opening of an envelope in their electorates. It worked to help make many of them household names.
Many LNP members are now digging themselves in using the same strategy at a time when Labor is considered unelectable.
Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk (pictured) knows this means many of the LNP members in former Labor seats will be hard to eject.
Palaszczuk has performed above expectations so far but most of the support which has leaked back to Labor has been caused by Newman, rather than her own efforts.
The Opposition Leader should consider listening to the original authors of the dig in strategy and start preselecting MPs in target seats.
Beattie has floated the idea of bringing back former Labor members as shadow ministers though the conventional wisdom is to wait until after the federal election.
But, with the race for power in Canberra considered almost over, Palaszczuk should not wait for her federal Labor colleagues to lose.
Labor needs its alternative members in shadow cabinet now. And it should go further, by preselecting people in every key electorate if it wants to begin competing with the LNP.
Sitting back and waiting for Newman to deliver Labor the electoral correction it thinks it deserves is not going to achieve anything.
Steven Wardill is The Courier-Mail's state political editor
steven.wardill@news.com.au
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