Editor’s view: Real election battle begins with LNP’s first major policy announcement

He still hasn’t shed his small-target strategy, but at least David Crisafulli has the armour on and has taken his place on the field of battle, writes The Editor.

The Courier-Mail has consistently called for Opposition Leader David Crisafulli to tell Queenslanders more about his plans if he wins the October election, as all published opinion polls are suggesting he will.

We therefore applaud him for today revealing a detailed plan for housing – a critical crisis area the Miles government has not exactly excelled in addressing.

Perhaps most interestingly, Mr Crisafulli’s plan includes a policy that is a bit of a surprise to come from the conservative side of politics: for the government share in the equity of up to 1000 homes so that Queenslanders struggling to save a deposit can get into the property market with a deposit as small as 2 per cent of the sale price.

Leader of the Opposition David Crisafulli, Parliament House. Picture: Liam Kidston

A similar scheme by the Albanese Labor government is opposed by the federal Coalition, and state LNP candidate Amanda Stoker has said of that scheme that it is “a really dangerous path to head down”.

“The idea that people might be beholden to a government for their most core type of financial security – their own home – is I think a little bit dangerous,” the then-senator said during the 2022 campaign.

“What we need to be doing is making sure we have the supply necessary, driving that at the state government level, and making sure that we’ve got the settings in place for people to be able to make good choices about what they want to save for – and be able to realise that. Making sure the government has the strings on everybody’s personal investments I think is really quite worrisome.”

Ouch. That is awkward, coming from someone who will likely be on Mr Crisafulli’s frontbench if the LNP wins in October.

But that being said, Mr Crisafulli is right to be trying everything. He is also right when he says the “great Australian dream of owning your own home” has gone from being eminently achievable when Labor returned to power in Queensland in 2015, to now being – in many cases – “nothing more than a pipedream”. More clearly needs to be done to contain runaway price growth.

And as he should, Mr Crisafulli is today going to make plenty of other promises in this space than just his $165m shared-equity scheme.

His plan to not charge those first-home buyers who build their house any stamp duty is a significant pledge, as it will deliver savings of upwards of $20,000 to recipients. It will be popular, and there will be pressure on Labor to follow suit.

Plans to remove a current restriction banning people who access first-home buyer grants from renting rooms within the first year seems a victory for commonsense, as does a pledge to fast-track development approvals – and the promise of help for councils for their regional infrastructure plans.

The cynics among us will smell the fertiliser when it comes to the plan to drag government agencies found to be slowing major housing developments before a ministerial taskforce to explain why. Similarly, with such long lead times, promises such as Mr Crisafulli’s to build one million more homes by 2044 must always be taken with a grain of salt.

But there is real merit in a new $2bn fund to help councils establish trunk infrastructure – that is water, sewerage, lighting, roads and parks – for new housing developments. And unlocking unused charity and church-owned land for community housing also seems a good idea.

What is most significant about today, however, is that Mr Crisafulli has the armour on and has taken his place on the field of battle.

A fully formed election manifesto requires a heck of a lot more than a plan for one policy area, and so it is too early to say Mr Crisafulli has yet shed his small-target strategy.

But it is a good start, and a very good sign that he is ready to lay out his plans to Queenslanders.