David Crisafulli and LNP must learn lessons from South Australian election
The fact that South Australians overwhelmingly embraced a young leader with a pledge to fix the health system is not lost on LNP strategists. David Crisafulli must learn the lessons if he is to convince Queenslanders to vote Labor out, writes Peter Gleeson.
Peter Gleeson
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Freshly-minted South Australian Labor premier Peter Malinauskas is 41, the Catholic son of Lithuanian-Hungarian parents who ran an Adelaide fish and chip shop.
Queensland’s LNP leader David Crisafulli is 42, the Catholic son of Italian parents who run a sugar cane farm in Ingham, north Queensland.
Both men are driven, articulate and intent on change. After being elected Opposition leader in South Australia in 2018, Malinauskas had four years to mount a case to depose conservative premier Steven Marshall. He did it spectacularly well.
Similarly, Crisafulli has four years to convince Queenslanders that he is a better bet than Annastacia Palaszczukwhen the next election is held in October, 2024.
Malinauskas made the state of SA’s health system front and centre of his campaign, exposing major deficiencies in the hospital system, and particularly ambulance response times.
He is the first Opposition leader to knock off an incumbent during the Covid era.
It says a lot about his style and demeanour – an old-fashioned Labor guy who stuck to policy rather than being mean – that he polled so well.
Crisafulli will also make health the major issue of the 2024 campaign.
He has the added benefit, just like Malinauskas, of an ongoing integrity crisis within the Palaszczuk Government which has exposed the cosy relationship between Ministers, the public service and unions.
It is not unreasonable to suggest there are significant parallels in the political fortunes of Malinauskas and Crisafulli.
The only difference is that Crisafulli is in the blue corner and Malinauskas dons the red colours.
The fact that South Australians overwhelmingly embraced a young leader with a pledge to fix the ailing health system is not lost on Queensland LNP strategists.
Last week, the LNP released more damning figures which reveal for the first time that one in three patients in emergency departments at hospitals across Brisbane aren’t being seen on time.
Ambulance ramping is at crisis levels with the numbers of patients left waiting on ramps, in hallways or along corridors on the rise.
There are 85,000 people on the waiting list for specialist appointments and one in three patients are routinely not being seen on time.
The figures also show Logan has the highest rate of ambulance ramping in the south-east with 55 per cent of all ambulances routinely stuck outside hospitals.
The LNP says half of all patients in emergency departments aren’t seen on time and one in three patients at the PA Hospital aren’t seen on time for specialist surgery and the number is just as high at Logan and Caboolture.
As the South Australian experience shows, Crisafulli knows health is a vote changer. Integrity should be, and the fact Labor research shows it doesn’t rate with voters is a shameful indictment on Queenslanders.
Crisafulli knows almost 250,000 Queenslanders are on the waiting list for the waiting list and a quarter of patients in emergency departments aren’t seen on time. That’s a lot of people upset with the way they are being treated – or not treated - in this case.
Worse, in rural and remote areas, women are having babies on the side of the road because birthing suites have been turned into Covid wards, even though there hasn’t been a Covid case in the community.
Crisafulli has pledged to ensure frontline staff take control back from Queensland Health, with better resources, data shared in real time and proper cultural change so that an ambulance doesn’t have to wait at the end of a ramp.
It’s a compelling message. But is it enough to beat a Labor Government that has become a world-class election winning machine, with a folksy premier who is the darling of the blue rinse set?
Labor know how to win. Period. Crisafulli has taken the attitude that this is a Melbourne Cup campaign, a staying event not a sprint.
He has been working the branches, attending stakeholder meetings throughout Queensland to convince frustrated LNP supporters that they can win in 2024. They put the broom through the LNP executive to get more unity.
Crisafulli’s critics say he’s been too slow out of the blocks and he needs to be more visible. But with Covid-19 dominating the media landscape, that’s a tough ask.
Crisafulli, like Malinauskas did, has to present a cogent, credible, sensible alternative to an incumbent Government that has lost its moral and ethical compass, and is botching the delivery of health.
The LNP has to convince Queensland that after being in power for 26 of the past 30 years, it’s time to give Labor the flick.
That is easier said than done. Palaszczuk is probably the best retail politician in the country and the Labor Party-Greens alliance is formidable.
In elections, they play for keeps. But Crisafulli knows the mountain he is climbing and it’s an Everest-like challenge.
When the whips are cracking, Crisafulli will be there.
THE ART OF INNOCENCE
A who’s who of the legal fraternity turned out last Friday night for an art prize based on the theme of “wrongful convictions’’.
Established in 2001 by lawyer Jason Murakami after bringing back the concept from a stint in New York, the Innocent Project’s Murakami and his partners Ron Behlau and Shane Grant have set up the award.
For more than two decades, the project has acted for hundreds of people on a pro bono basis, changed government policies and educated and trained more than 1000 young lawyers about the importance of the rule of law.
The exhibition is at the Webb Gallery, South Bank.
RUSSIAN TO CANCEL
A Russian-owned sports club at Carrara on the Gold Coast has been forced to cancel many of its scheduled events after “cost-cutting’’ moves.
LOBBY CONCERNS
A former senior Labor federal minister is not complying with the register of interest for lobbyists and is being looked at by authorities.
END OF THE LINE
The word on the street is that the final stage of the Gold Coast light rail, from Palm Beach to Coolangatta, will never happen. The opposition from locals is palpable.
KARL STAYING PUT
TV STAR Karl Stefanovic’s Sunshine Coast property has been passed in, with the $7.5m reserve not met. Stefanovic said he might commute between the Sunshine Coast and Sydney for his Today show commitments.
“It’s an option,’’ he said.
“We just love this place.’’
GRACE GOES SILENT
IT’S been a month since the Albion Park racetrack was flooded (inset), rendering the dogs and trots unable to race.
You’d think someone at Racing Queensland and Racing Minister Grace Grace might have picked up the phone to Albion harness and greyhound bosses to see how things were.
Crickets.
Just reinforces the notion that RQ only really cares about the thoroughbreds.
