Barnaby Joyce: Deputy PM predicts early Queensland election

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has hinted a possibility of an early election in Queensland. He said the state could have its election within a period of three months. However, he said his predictions are based on “reading the tea leaves.”

"I mean, [Premier] Annastacia Palaszczuk and Jackie Trad are basically creating chaos and it's only going to get worse," Joyce added. Palaszczuk has expressed her disinclination towards an early election. Meanwhile, federal Labour sources have also said the Premier is unlikely to go to the polls before the June budget.

Joyce, who has been campaigning in Queensland and said will be there this weekend, spoke about the potential threat Pauline Hanson’s One Nation presents. "I lose sleep over a whole range of things but Pauline Hanson is not one of them," he said, speaking with the ABC.

“[Hanson] has every right to mark out her territory but our choice is not to stand in every seat, which One Nation does,” he said. “We stand in certain regional seats. And we believe absolutely fervently that you've got to be at the table to change people in the country's lives."

Meanwhile, Joyce stood against the decision of the Western Australian Liberal Party to preference One Nation over the Nationals in the upcoming elections. The deputy prime minister said the decision “that the next best people to govern Western Australia after the Liberal Party are One Nation” should be thought over.

“When you step away from that, there's one thing you can absolutely be assured of is that we are going to be in opposition," he said on Monday.

The Labor Party spoke about their disinclination to preference One Nation. The deal could adversely affect tourists, the party argued. "Back when Pauline Hanson and One Nation rose to prominence on the previous occasion, the coalition government had to engage in a full court press in our region ... as a direct result of people hearing the message that Australia wasn't a welcoming country," Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said, as reported by AAP (via 9News).

Joyce is on the receiving end of the mounting pressure in light of the rising popularity of One Nation. Speaking with the ABC, two federal Nationals said they were told by their colleagues in WA that they were not welcome there.

However, Joyce dismissed the idea that he wouldn’t be welcome by WA Nationals. "It is a state election on state issues and they're not going to be fighting it on federal issues," he said.