Editorial: The lingering issue David Crisafulli needs to put to bed

David Crisafulli should come clean and properly explain his actions so this issue won’t dog him during the election, writes The Editor.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli.

In exactly a month from now the state election campaign will be in full swing. We hope it is a contest of ideas. We fear it will be an exercise in mud-slinging.

The only real hope the Labor Party has is that it can turn the campaign away from a verdict on the past almost-decade of government towards a popularity contest between the two leaders.

And with Premier Steven Miles not really cutting through – as had been the hope – in the popularity stakes, there is little doubt that Labor will be looking to instead personally attack Opposition Leader David Crisafulli.

This should not be a surprise. Even at the last election when the Covid-19 response had clearly saved the Palaszczuk government, the Labor Party still happily spread lies about an entirely non-existent LNP plan to cut public service jobs.

This time they have already started testing attack lines. And chief among them has been their use of the coward’s castle of parliamentary privilege to raise what are actually quite legitimate questions about Mr Crisafulli’s dealings while he was the sole director of a training company for four months in 2015 and 2016 (during which time he was also an Opposition MP).

Mr Crisafulli was the director of training agency Southern Edge, trading as SET Solutions, between December 2015 and April 2016 before it went into liquidation on June 30, 2016 – owing creditors $3m. Following claims the company was trading insolvent, a negotiated settlement was reached between liquidators and Mr Crisafulli, who paid $200,000 in three payments between March 2020 and July 2021.

Treasurer Cameron Dick.

Government ministers lined up in parliament last month to slam Mr Crisafulli’s silence on the matter, with Treasurer Cameron Dick using parliamentary privilege to accuse him of making the payments to cover up “crooked behaviour”.

Mr Dick accused Mr Crisafulli of leaving creditors out of pocket when the business went broke.

“He ran a business into the ground,” the deputy premier told parliament, where the usual rules of defamation do not apply. “They have lost money because of how badly he ran that company and he has kept that a secret. At every step he has tried to cover it up, paying $200,000 in hush money. If you cannot run a small company, how on earth could you run Queensland?”

Mr Crisafulli has denied any wrongdoing and claims he “met my obligations” as a company director.

On Mr Dick’s decision to personally attack him, Mr Crisafulli said: “It’s the desperation of a government that has run out of steam, that has no direction and most importantly, no plan for the future of Queensland.

“The more the government gets desperate, the more aggressive the government will get.”

We tend to agree. However, we also think Mr Crisafulli has actually been his own worst enemy when it comes to this issue.

He has not directly answered the questions being put to him, instead relying repeatedly on responses that sound like they have been carefully crafted by a lawyer.

In all likelihood, Mr Crisafulli hasn’t engaged in any intentional wrongdoing here. He was possibly just naive. If so, he should say so. He should come clean and properly explain his actions. If he stuffed up, he should just say that. If he would have acted differently given his time again, he should acknowledge that. Everyone makes mistakes, after all.

Instead, Mr Crisafulli falls back every time when asked about this issue to his usual clever political strategy of reframing questions put to him into queries that he has a rehearsed answer for.

A desperate Labor Party will be planning to run a dirty campaign, of that there is no doubt. Stale lies about the LNP’s supposed failures to learn from the Newman era will be far easier for Mr Crisafulli to bat away than unresolved questions about an insolvent business he himself was the sole director of just eight years ago.

AWKS BUT NECESSARY

In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis it is awkward as heck that the Miles government looks like it will have to offer a bailout to the operator of the state’s brand new casino.

But Premier Steven Miles is right to be considering doing so, as the $3.6bn Queen’s Wharf precinct is just too big – and too important to the future of our capital city – to fail.

The plan to offer assistance to the beleaguered Star Entertainment Group in the form of deferrals to its payroll and gambling taxes so it can keep the doors open at the precinct that opened just a week ago today seems like the right approach, as it ensures taxpayers will – in the long-term – not be left out of pocket.

The assistance would ensure the precinct can keep trading through its troubles, and most importantly that those who have just been employed there can keep the jobs they have just been trained to do.

Queen’s Wharf is more than just the casino. As Premier Miles rightly explained yesterday – and we agree – the 12ha precinct is “an important platform for Brisbane 2032 and everything that we’re going to do in our city over the next decade”.

An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly stated that Mr Crisafulli was an Opposition MP in 2015 and 2016.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here