Crisafulli walks back key crime commitment on election eve

David Crisafulli has walked back a key commitment on the LNP’s crime policies one day out from the election.

The opposition leader added a significant caveat to his earlier promise to resign if victim numbers don’t go down in an LNP government’s first term, saying the statistics would be adjusted for population growth.

“It will be tied to population growth, of course,” he told reporters on the Sunshine Coast on Friday.

David Crisafulli, who hung his premiership on crime victim numbers if the LNP won power.Credit: William Davis

“As a population expands, it’s commensurate. You want less victims as a ratio of your population.”

During the first debate of the campaign, Crisafulli promised to resign as premier at the end of his first term if the number of Queensland crime victims had not declined.

Campaigning on the Gold Coast on Friday, Premier Steven Miles was scathing of the belated clarification, which he said undermined Crisafulli’s leadership and also highlighted Labor’s positive record.

Miles said that by allowing for a future increase in victims due to population growth, Crisafulli had gone against “everything he has consistently said”.

The premier said the LNP had long criticised Labor for an overall increase in victims – as well as crime rates generally – using data that “per capita, has seen a decrease”.

“Let’s not forget that this is a statistic that he himself chose,” Miles told reporters.

“David Crisafulli marked out this field – it was his field of play – and now he has moved the goal posts the day before the election.”

Miles suggested “you cannot trust a single thing that David Crisafulli says”.

Crisafulli had earlier been accompanied by federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton at a Day for Daniel walk on the Sunshine Coast.

“I think David’s run a great campaign,” Dutton told reporters.

“The Labor Party will always run scare campaigns, but I think Queenslanders are smarter than that.

“I think David Crisafulli has shown that he has a vison for our state. I think there are many reasons why there will be a change of government.”

On the last full day of campaigning, with many people having already voted at pre-poll centres, Crisafulli again called on Queenslanders to choose a “fresh start” by voting LNP.

Miles – who at one point on Friday took to a jetski for the TV cameras – said he had spent the past 10 months as premier doing what mattered for Queenslanders.

“I’ve not wasted a minute,” he said.

“Our plan for housing, for cost of living, for community safety, for healthcare is working and heading in the right direction, and now is not the time to throw out those plans that are working.”

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