Opposition Leader David Crisafulli announces priorities ahead of state election and beyond

Young Queenslanders will be helped into their own home under an “ambitious” plan released by Opposition Leader David Crisafulli as he attempts to draw the battlelines a year out from the state election.

• Editor’s View: Fight is on

Young Queenslanders will be helped into their own home under an “ambitious” plan released by Opposition Leader David Crisafulli as he attempts to draw the battlelines a year out from the state election.

Mr Crisafulli is closely eyeing tax relief, incentives and moves to unlock more housing supply as he announced a new target to make Queensland the home-ownership capital of the nation.

The pitch for the youth vote, revealed to The Sunday Mail, comes 12 months before Queenslanders will decide whether Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk should remain for four more years – or if it’s time for change.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli is preparing for a year-long election battle. Picture: Nigel Hallett

To mark the countdown, Mr Crisafulli has released what he labels an “ambitious, bold and visionary” 10-year target to lift Queensland home ownership rates to the top of the ladder.

The state has the lowest rate of ownership in every age bracket, across Australia.

Just 64 per cent of Queenslanders own their own homes, lower than the 67 per cent national average.

“The great Australian dream has become a nightmare,” Mr Crisafulli said. “I want Queenslanders, particularly young Queenslanders, to achieve their goal of owning a home if they want to.

“All options of state government assistance to get home buyers into the market will be looked at, costed and announced.”

David Crisafulli at the Eatons Hill Hotel with Adam Hasa from Ferny Hills with Jackie Richardson from Bowen Hills. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Mr Crisafulli declared “everything is on the table” – but is yet to release specific policy details which will come closer to the election.

He refused to rule anything in or out, declaring the LNP would consider incentive models in other states and work with local government to deliver “ambitious infrastructure”.

Mr Crisafulli also revealed the LNP would appoint the nation’s first minister for home ownership.

Opposition Treasury spokesman David Janetzki will immediately lead the charge and would become the inaugural minister.

Mr Crisafulli will also on Sunday launch a blueprint for the next 12 months – dubbed Right Priorities for Queenslanders – which would double as the theme of an incoming LNP state government.

The five “priorities” include health, safety and housing, largely in line with the political issues the LNP has been pushing over the past three years in opposition.

“There will be no announcement made that doesn’t reflect these priorities,” Mr Crisafulli said.

Such is the nature of politics that a first-term government often spends its time blaming problems on the previous one.

David Janetzki would become Queensland’s inaugural minister for home ownership. File picture

Mr Crisafulli said he would not put a timeline on when the “crises” in youth crime, health and housing would be fixed, but insisted there would be clear signs of improvement over four years.

“I’m not suggesting people will wake up the day after an election and a decade of mismanagement will be fixed,” he said. “If we’re given the privilege of government, when we seek re-election in 2028 Queenslanders will see the improvement across all of these priorities, all of them.”

Twelve months from the October 2024 poll the LNP is increasingly, but cautiously, confident. “All governments reach a use-by date, some happen much sooner than others,” Mr Crisafulli says.

For almost nine years in office, however, Ms Palaszczuk’s political fortunes have sunk and soared.

She remains the ultimate campaigner and Queensland Labor is the ultimate campaign machine.

In contrast, the LNP has been left flat-footed in the fast pace of election campaigns as poor political judgment and internal division combined to ensure repeated defeat.

The cracks of the Liberal and National parties merger more than a decade ago appear to have healed, but some suggest they have been merely papered over.

Since inheriting a dysfunctional party in 2020, Mr Crisafulli, a moderate, has attempted to starve off the smallest shoot of disunity by dragging the conservative and small “l” Liberals – former prime minister John Howard’s broad church – into one tent.

Campbell Newman

Deb Frecklington

“Our unity has given everybody an ability to shape the responses to these challenges and as a result we are a better unit for it,” he said. “I’ve never seen the Labor Party bogged down by infighting like this.”

Mr Crisafulli’s declaration of unity suggests there will be no repeat of the undermining of then-leader Deb Frecklington in 2020 – or the intervention of a state executive.

He insisted repealing voluntary assisted dying and abortion – championed by Labor’s left faction and made Queensland law – was “not on the agenda”.

“It is not our priority, there will be no position taken on it, it’s not a policy platform.”

He has also committed to releasing a detailed economic statement before the election.

The LNP needs to win 14 seats to win majority government – a massive feat.

It hasn’t held power since 2015 when Campbell Newman squandered his huge majority.

As local government minister in Mr Newman’s government, Mr Crisafulli is in the crosshairs for countless regular attacks from Labor government ministers.

They argue Mr Crisafulli “sat around the cabinet table” while Mr Newman sacked 14,000 public servants.

David Crisafulli will on Sunday reveal the LNP’s top priorities for Queensland. File picture: Steve Pohlner

Now vying to be premier himself, Mr Crisafulli said public servants should not fear him more than Labor.

“The public service in Queensland has a culture of entrenched fear, ministerial staffers walking around like generals, a rotten culture from the head down and I want them to know they are going to be valued, they are going to be respected, they are going to be empowered,” he said.

Polling reveals the Crisafulli-led LNP is on track to win – but the party has been in this position before.

Labor’s campaign machine has found higher gears over the past three elections and despite poor polling, Ms Palaszczuk’s ability to connect with Queenslanders won’t be underestimated.

“She’s a formidable politician – she’s referred to me as the other guy,” he said.

“We remain the underdog and history shows that.”

Of the past 12 state general elections, Labor has won 11. History shows Mr Crisafulli is right to be reserved.

On October 31, 2020, a dejected Mr Crisafulli watched the election night coverage, quickly realising Ms Palaszczuk’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic would keep the LNP in the political wilderness for four more years.

David Crisafulli speaks to a constituent. Picture: Nigel Hallett

There is white-hot anger at the party’s failure to dislodge Ms Frecklington and a private, “what if he challenged” reflection by some.

It was then that a flicker inside the boy from Ingham morphed into a flame.

“I burn to win,” he told a small group of supporters.

“We can’t keep accepting the same process and accepting the same loss.

“This is the last roll of the dice for me and I want you to come on that journey and help us achieve all we can in 2024.”

Over two years Mr Crisafulli has led a relentless prosecution of the systemic problems within Queensland Health.

Challenges in housing and cost of living added fuel to the government’s fire and gave Mr Crisafulli several avenues of attack options.

On October 26, 2024 – three years, 11 months and 26 days after starting the journey – David Crisafulli will discover whether his number comes up.

Originally published as Opposition Leader David Crisafulli announces priorities ahead of state election and beyond