Don Livingston is a seasoned campaigner. He used to hold the seat for Labor until Jack Paff came along. The ALP has side-stepped the issue of preferences here and indeed across Queensland by calling on voters to exercise the state's optional preferential vote and simply vote one. Peter Beattie insists that's not a cop-out. Of course, Labor is making the most of conservative divisions.
Conservatives are in a war between themselves.
Certainly in the rural areas which has always been the most difficult for us, the conservative vote appears to be split. With so much at stake, campaigning in Ipswich West is becoming a nasty personal business. But the knives seem especially sharp for Jack Paff, caught in a place of his own making between One Nation and the Nationals. The feeling in the community is that Jack Paff didn't win that seat last time, Pauline did. He turned his back on the electorate by jumping ship.