Excerpt:
A snap election in Australia's Queensland is poised to show a surge in support for populists in the traditionally conservative state.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk asked the state's acting governor to dissolve parliament on Sunday before announcing a Nov. 25 vote. The election is likely to be tight, with the balance of power potentially going to Pauline Hanson's anti-Muslim immigration party One Nation: its estimated 18 percent support state-wide may be even higher among disaffected voters in regional areas.
Parts of resource-rich Queensland are still recovering from the end of a once-in-a-generation mining investment boom, with the state's unemployment level increasing to 5.9 percent last month, the country's second-highest. While 125,000 jobs have been created since Palaszczuk formed a minority government in 2015, just 24,000 of them have been full-time.