Qld election analysis: David Crisafulli has his John Hewson moment

David Crisafulli’s drawn-out response to what should have been a simple answer was a political own goal, writes Hayden Johnson.

It’s the simplicity of a question that can derail the most stage-managed campaign.

If GST is applied to a birthday cake, will I pay more or less? And ... what’s your position on abortion?

For 3½ weeks, David Crisafulli was unable to utter a straight answer about the LNP’s plan for abortion, how MPs would vote, or even his personal views on the issue.

By the 37th question, he had a scripted answer ready before it was asked.

It has contributed to a shocking collapse in support for a party that after four years prosecuting the government’s failings, should have had an easier time winning.

Winning 12 seats to reach a majority is no small feat. But falling over the line just four weeks after you were expected to win 19 seats surely prompts a post-mortem.

The Labor machine is a gritty and dirty campaign machine with bottomless manpower from the unions.

It claimed 17,000 public service workers would be axed, hospitals sold or even – in a bizarre claim in Bundaberg – bulldozed before construction finishes.

The LNP foreshadowed the “mother of all scare campaigns” and became too confident voters would dismiss it as such.

But most cutting was Mr Crisafulli and his 92 candidates’ inability to answer a simple question about the LNP’s position on abortion.

Asked of the leader in some form more than 130 times, this was Mr Crisafulli’s John Hewson moment.

Minority government is now the worst-case scenario in play for the LNP.

While a win is a win, the party must reflect on how it blew the 10-point lead it held just a month ago.

For Labor, Steven Miles will go down as a hero for saving the party from a certain hiding under Annastacia Palaszczuk.

He is empathetic, pragmatic and his political career probably isn’t over. Labor will benefit from a stint in opposition to recalibrate, with some dead wood removed.

Happy voting.

Originally published as Qld election analysis: David Crisafulli has his John Hewson moment