Opinion: David Crisafulli must think big now he’s in government

For the first election in a long time the LNP had discipline in spades. That discipline needs to continue in government, writes Graham Young.

David Crisafulli has won the election, now he must win the government.

The first was the easier of the two, as there was a strong mood for change which suited a small-target, reactive strategy, but now he needs to become a large proactive target.

A government that does not create its own agenda and move on it, is one that will be pulled down by political predators.

Running a small-target strategy is not easy. It requires discipline, and some bravery, to ignore the enthusiasts who want you to promote a slew of positive policies, or to take a stand on every issue.

For the first election in a long time the LNP had discipline in spades. That discipline needs to continue in government.

One of the weaknesses of the small-target strategy is that it is based on helping the other side lose rather than winning in your own right, which necessitates limiting the vision you offer so that they have nothing to attack, and the focus is all on them.

The converse of this is that if you are too bland, they can create a straw man you which they can beat.

The Queensland election was only the first of LNP leader David Crisafulli's epic battles, as illustrated by Brett Lethbridge

Labor achieved this with their fanciful abortion scare which ran longer than it should have because Crisafulli tried to stay on message rather than be distracted.

In the end the issue damaged him not because most voters believed it was real, but because they thought he was evasive.

When you move from opposition to government you go from critic to creator.

This means that plot development is essential to every good government.

You can’t dive straight into Season 4, you need to work your way through a list of issues, each time dramatising them in a way that engages and enlists your audience.

If voters don’t see there is a problem they won’t accept your solution, no matter how necessary.

The most pressing problem is economic management – specifically spending and debt that are out of control and the mismanagement of construction projects and the energy transition.

Between them they are responsible for the inflation and cost-of-living crisis that made voters grumpy.

Spending and debt were largely ignored during the election, but they will be central to a successful government plot line.

Premier David Crisafulli (right) with deputy Jarrod Bleijie. Picture: John Gass/NCA NewsWire

The campaign also underlines the need for allies.

David Crisafulli’s win would have been bigger if the system hadn’t been financially rigged against him. Labor’s trade union “owners” were able to vastly outspend the LNP in favour of their government.

The result was that in the seats with the smallest margins of safety going in there were some of the smallest swings. Seats, mostly in Brisbane, that should have fallen stayed with the ALP.

There was some counter to the unions with COAL Australia providing substantial seed funding to three organisations, of which we were one, but there were 17 unions, so it was like using gel blasters when the other side has a fire hose.

Full marks to the coal companies for investing against a party with populist, Peronist smash and grab policies in favour of those with an understanding of industry, employment and standard of living.

Crisafulli needs more of this third-party involvement, even after he reforms the electoral laws to make them democratic again.

One of the great failures of the Newman government was that it didn’t engage and enlist community support for necessary reforms.

(Its Strong Choices project, a community consultation to find solutions to state debt, was an exception to this. Its flaw was it found an answer without a constituency and the Newman government foundered on a privatisation proposal without supporters.)

The Miles opposition will easily find “community” opponents among its allies for anything the new government wants to do: trade unions, university academics and astroturf community and environmental groups.

The trick for Crisafulli, and those in the community who support his broad agenda, is to organise their own effective alliance, which must reach out well-beyond the LNP and involve like-minded political parties.

The last lesson is that people didn’t vote for the LNP, they voted against the ALP. Trust will need to be earned, and authority cannot be taken for granted. The LNP has started its reign “respectfully” but too much triumphalism will be punished.

Paradoxically for the LNP Labor has helped them to stay focused by turning the anticipated electoral tsunami into a less damaging cyclonic surge.

Graham Young is executive director of the Australian Institute for Progress