Speaking at a behind closed doors meeting with the Transport Workers’ Unions in Brisbane on Thursday night, Mr Chalmers made reference of the last time the LNP were running the Sunshine State under Campbell Newman between 2012-2015.

He told the crowd of local truck drivers that the period was “disastrous” for the state, and suggested Mr Crisafulli had seen it as “some kind of golden era”.

“David Crisafulli would absolutely gut the joint,” Mr Chalmers said, News Corp reports.

“He would absolutely gut Queensland like a fish if he gets the chance to do it, just like Campbell Newman did. This is what’s at stake here in the Queensland election, before we go to a federal election after that.”

The Treasurer also considers it is a “dangerous time” to elect the Liberals and Nationals, adding Mr Crisafulli and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton are “in cahoots on cuts”.

Touching on the cost of living crisis impacting tens of thousands of families across the country, Mr Chalmers claimed they would be even worst off under the Liberals.

“They’d be doing it tougher without our cost of living help. They’d be doing it tougher without our responsible economic management keeping Australia out of recession. “They would be doing it much tougher under our opponents,” he said.

His remarks come just over seven weeks until Queenslanders head to polls to decide the next prime minister – Steven Miles or Mr Crisafulli – on October 26.

A YouGov poll in July showed Mr Crisafulli as the preferred leader, with 40 per cent of those surveyed saying he would do a better job compared to Mr Miles on 29 per cent.

Mr Chalmers has turned up the heat on the opposition recently with some eyebrow-raising remarks ahead of the Queensland and federal election.

Early last week he labeled Mr Dutton as “dangerous” and accused him of “pathologically” seeking to divide Australia down ideological lines.

Speaking at the John Curtin Research Center in Melbourne, he again touched on the polls and that there is “a lot at stake” in the coming months.

“Leadership which is destructive, and divisive, is not really leadership at all and that’s what we are seeing from Peter Dutton,” Mr Chalmers said.

“He is the most divisive leader of a major political party in Australia’s modern history and not by accident, by choice. At a time when most sane people see political divisiveness around the world and want to reject it, he wants to embrace it.

“It is the only plank in his political platform. He divides deliberately, almost pathologically.”

The federal Opposition Leader responded some hours later, questioning why Mr Chalmers had dedicated a speech to him “if Australians were doing so well”.

The Labor Party has turned up the “divisive” rhetoric in recent weeks after Mr Dutton’s call for visa bans on people fleeing from Gaza to Australia.

The latest polling suggests it will be a close federal election, after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s approval ratings plunged to its equal lowest since taking office.

The Newspoll survey conducted by the Australian showed the two major parties standing at 50-50 on a two-party preferred basis.

Mr Albanese is yet to call the federal election.