Premier Steven Miles has wasted little time jetting into north Queensland with regional areas set to sway the October 26 state election.
The premier hit the ground running in Townsville on Tuesday after earlier taking a bus to Brisbane's Government House, cheekily showcasing his 50-cent fare scheme.
It officially kick-started the election campaign, with the state government going into caretaker mode after his visit to Governor Jeannette Young.
Within an hour, Mr Miles flew north to sway voters who appear most affected by the election's key issues - youth crime, health, housing and cost of living pressures.
He is looking to rally voters in crime-hit northern electorates such as Townsville, Barron River, Cairns and Cook - all marginally held by Labor.
Making almost $5 billion in spending promises to date, the premier on Tuesday said a re-elected Labor government would invest $3 million in early intervention and prevention programs to help curb youth crime in Townsville.
"Our community safety plan invests into programs that we know are working, and many of those programs have been piloted here in Townsville," Mr Miles told reporters.
"We can now report that in the last nine months, we’ve seen an 18 per cent reduction in serious repeat offenders across the state."
The Labor government has 51 seats in the Queensland parliament after losing Ipswich West at a March by-election.
Of those seats, 23 are held by a margin of less than 10 per cent with experts predicting a "big swing" in favour of the opposition.
Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli is tipped to end Labor's nine-year reign after consistently leading the polls.
Latest results point to a convincing LNP election win, with Freshwater Strategy figures on Monday putting the opposition ahead 56 per cent to 44 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.
The Labor government conceded it was the election underdog but Mr Miles gave the party a vote of confidence on Tuesday.
"Every election in Queensland's really hard, but I'm confident that the plans we will outline to Queenslanders over the next few weeks are good plans for our state's future," he said.
Labor has remarkably governed Queensland for 30 of the past 35 years, including the last three terms.
Mr Miles has only been in power for 10 months after taking over from evergreen premier Annastacia Palaszczuk who tearfully resigned in December 2023.
The premier on Tuesday appeared to rule out forming a minority government but told ABC Radio that he'd test the numbers in parliament if Labor had more seats than the LNP.
Mr Crisafulli dismissed the thought of a minority government as he launched his own campaign.
"Queenslanders need confidence, they need certainty and they need change, they need a fresh start - they don't need horse trading," he told reporters in Bundaberg, north of Brisbane.
Mr Crisafulli got a head start with voters in the north, promising a $100 million boost for youth crime intervention programs in Cairns on Monday.
He then made a brief stop on Tuesday at Bundaberg, a seat Labor held by nine votes.
He committed $40 million in grants for businesses to install CCTV, safety lighting and alarm systems to deter crime.
