Deb Frecklington’s first year as Queensland LNP leader

It’s exactly 12 months since Deb Frecklington assumed the unenviable role of Queensland opposition leader — and that’s not the only figure on her mind.

IT TAKES just seconds for Deb Frecklington to specify the number of days between now and the next state election in 2020.

The Liberal National Party leader checks and cites the count all the time. And from today it is 690 days until polling day on October 31, 2020.

It’s war between Frecklington, Newman, PM

‘Election-winning strategy’ PM doesn’t want

Frecklington may need to change tactics

Today also marks 12 months since the Member for Nanango made the leap from Tim Nicholls’ deputy to opposition leader, following the party’s crushing defeat at the November 2017 election.

Not only did the LNP fail to clinch power, it went backwards in the expanded Parliament thanks to a particularly brutal drubbing in its Brisbane seats.

Its next leadership team needed to not only drag the depleted party room out of the doldrums, but also help the LNP keep its bush voters happy while winning back those in the southeast.

Enter Ms Frecklington and her deputy, Brisbane-based Member for Everton Tim Mander.

She credits her family, party colleagues and her community for convincing her to run for the top job.

Her father Don Stiller, a former mayor, gave her some of the most frank advice, telling his daughter: “It’s going to be bloody tough and you’re going to have to work hard.”

Queensland Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington is satisfied with her performance in her first year in the job. Picture: Liam Kidston

Twelve months on, Ms Frecklington says she believes she had put in the hard yards as she and her team attempt to show voters who they are, what they stand for and why they are different to the LNP team those voters decided to turf out in 2015, and then to keep in electoral purgatory this term as well.

“My biggest challenge is getting across the state … letting people know that there has been a generational change within the LNP … and that we’re there to offer a viable alternative to the current Government,” Ms Frecklington says.

“We have to learn from our mistakes but we also have to learn to get on and actually stop talking about ourselves and do what people are interested in.”

That generational change the Opposition Leader is referring to also includes encouraging more women to run at for the LNP at the next State Election and to run in winnable seats so they can help keep that generational change going.

“We are democratic party but I am keen to encourage more females into our party because definitely we need them on our benches...” Ms Frecklington says.

“It is up to the party members, so I am not going to pre-empt any of their decisions. But if I can encourage some females into winnable seats I will.”

Deb Frecklington gets back to the people at the Ekka.

Ms Frecklington has been mentoring potential female candidates, a revelation she let slip earlier this year when she expressed her disappointment in the rolling of federal MP Jane Prentice.

She said she was hoping her ascension to the opposition leader’s job would help inspire others to follow her lead.

“You only need to look at my example,” she said.

“Some people call Nanango heartland, and the root and branch of the party were more than accepting of me as the local member.

“I’m not the career politician so I didn’t expect to end up here. I did it because I think you are better off having a voice inside than whingeing from the sidelines.

“There is an ability to have a really strong and loud voice. But we need to win more seats.”

Ms Frecklington says her team has had some wins, crediting Opposition pressure for pushing the Government into agreeing to fund $1 billion in Pacific Motorway upgrades and forcing its hand on real-time fuel price monitoring, among others.

But it has not all been smooth sailing.

The decision of three Liberal National MPs to back abortion decriminalisation — and very public internal brawling that followed — caused a headache for the Opposition.

Ms Frecklington backed her team and their right to have a conscience vote. She said she did not believe the saga had slowed her down “in any way, shape or form”.

Deb Frecklington in action during Question Time

“I think there’s bigger issues that people are concerned about,” she said.

“They are worried about issues like their electricity bill, how they can afford their drivers licence or that they can turn up to a hospital and get seen.

“They are not necessarily worried about internal machinations of the party.”

Ms Frecklington has also drawn internal fire over her decision to strongly rebuke her Commonwealth counterparts on the eve of the federal election over their recent forays into energy policy, including her declaration Prime Minister Scott Morrison was “out of touch” when it was revealed his “big stick” divestiture laws could end in asset sales in the Sunshine State.

She penned a letter to Mr Morrison asking him to pay down the gold-plating of Queensland poles and wires in a $7 billion strategy she believed could help him get “back in the game” and win the election.

She insists she was simply standing up for Queensland.

“What I think is one of the biggest challenges for Queensland is the fact that we pay so much for electricity,” she said.

“It’s going to define this election, and it will probably define the next.”