A recent Courier Mail editorial (C-M, 23/10) asserts that Labor’s abortion scare is now just a lie.

There’s an old saying that actions speak louder than words.

That’s why people prefer to assess others by what they do rather than what they say. How often have we heard during political campaigns that the actions do not match the rhetoric? Crisafulli and his party voted overwhelmingly against the decriminalisation of abortion.

Even if they don’t change anything we know where their mindset is.

In Tuesday night’s debate when he finally answered ‘yes’ to the question on a woman’s right to choose it sounded more like a cry of desperation for power than a sincere statement of belief.

The received wisdom is that the Queensland ALP is on the brink of a stunning defeat. The terminology used includes ‘wipeout’, ‘landslide’ and ‘rout’. Comparisons with the slaughter of Anna Bligh’s team in 2012 are also suggested. She had a total of 51 seats and ended up with 7. Lifetime Labor voters turned on her in their droves.

This time those same voters are much more enthusiastically and solidly behind Steven Miles, not only because they fear the alternative, but because they believe they can trust their leader.

Thus, while the ‘change’ factor may be in the air making the LNP favourites to win this time, Labor will fight and not easily allow a party into office that voted almost en masse against the decriminalisation of abortion.

They are also becoming more aware that two-thirds of the LNP opposed voluntary assisted dying. That makes it less likely that there’ll be a ‘wipeout’, ‘landslide’ or ‘rout’.