Queensland’s Deputy Premier learned so long ago that the confluence of the b, j and e in his western European surname were going to be a challenge to the Anglosphere that one of his first and most successful political campaigns was centred on how to pronounce it.

“We had a video made of kids trying a variety of pronunciations _ Bleyje, Blagi, that sort of thing,’’ he recalls over lunch at the Kawana Waters Hotel in the centre of his electorate.

“” And then my son appears on the screen with the correct pronunciation saying: “Jarrod Bleijie, that’s my dad!

“It has to be one of my best advertising campaigns yet.’’

Jarrod Peter Bleijie, no relation whatsoever to former Premier Sir Joh, has to be one of the more enigmatic personalities sitting on the state’s legislature, melding his right leaning politics of pro-small business and small government with an admiration for the British monarchy, a passion for rock 'n' roll dancing and a penchant for dressing up as Elvis Presley and performing reasonably credible versions of (a hunka-hunka of) Burning Love.

And yet, talk to some Queenslanders and they’ll insist they have him pegged without ever having met him.

“Arrogant”, “head kicker”, “privileged private school boy’’ is a surprisingly widespread perception.

The head kicker accusation might have an element of truth in a parliamentary performative sense, but in private the confidence which is unquestionably part of his persona rarely comes across as arrogance.

And the privileged private school boy image is light years removed from reality.

Dutch Indonesia might be a starting point for his life story.

His paternal grandfather was born there just before the war but ended up being locked up in an internment camp after the Japanese invaded in 1942 and he suffered such deprivation that (as family lore has it) he once was so starved he ate a rat to survive.

The family returned to the Netherlands after the war but his restless grandad was convinced by his parents that war-torn Europe was no place to build a future.

He came to Australia, married, and out of that union produced son Pieter who married Christine Cooper (both of whom still thrive on the Sunshine Coast) who in turn gave the world Jarrod on January 25 1982,

Despite an admirable work ethic, the Bleijie family could never have been said to be awash with wealth and privilege.

Jarrod was born in Griffith in northern New South Wales but moved to Queensland in his early years after his enterprising uncle, Lindsay ‘Coop’ Cooper who had built the first Ettamogah Pub in NSW, established another one in Queensland along the Bruce Highway just south of the Caloundra turn off.

That pub with the vintage car on the roof was a testament to mid-20th Century Australian culture and humour with its blue singleted ockers with the durry dangling from the lips, and its design sprang directly from Ken Maynard’s cartoons in The Australasia Post.

The pub proved a commercial success, providing the entire extended family with a living for years.

“Nanna ran the general store, mum was office manager, dad was groundsman and bar manager and Uncle Lindsay and Aunty Sonia owned the whole thing,’’

But Recession arrived in the 90s, the banks were unforgiving, the pub was sold around 1993 and Jarrod’s parents started a camping equipment store in Caloundra.

“The Labor Party frames me as something I am not,’ he says over his rump steak and mushroom sauce, as locals stop by to chat, or hit him up to buy raffle tickets.

“In a way, it was always a bit of a struggle for us.

“” I mean, dad was a truck driver in NSW, he drove the Esso truck I still remember from Griffith, and then they both worked at the pub and then worked their guts out seven days a week in their own small business in Caloundra.

“I look at mum and dad as blue-collar workers, (former Prime Minister John) Howard battlers.

“You might say they leaned towards the Liberal/Country/National Party but they were just not political, not members of a political party

“My family were not really political at all.’’

But Jarrod was.

Somewhere in his last years at Primary School he became fascinated by the contest between Labor’s Paul Keating and the Coalition’s John Howard which culminated in the 1996 election.

When his civic education class at Caloundra Primary School decided to stage a mock election to better understand the democratic process Jarrod, at the tender age of 12, hit the campaign trail.

He went to the newsagent, purchased some glittering Fluro stars and glitzed up the corflutes to run a hard charging campaign with the slogan:

“Be smart, be safe, be sure, vote Bleijie.’’

He won, went on to get engaged with a range of community affairs before being made school captain at high school and then started studying for his law degree when, at the age of 19, his then 17-year-old girlfriend Sally became pregnant.

The two teenagers were utterly terrified and for several months, unable to tell their parents.

“” It would have to be the worst time of my life,’’ he remembers.

“We were so young, we thought maybe we would get in trouble but then we thought, “well, what would they do to us?’’

They bit the bullet, told their parents and were met with a warm acceptance along with total support from both families.

With the help from a pastor from the Uniting Church, they got through the pregnancy and went on to marry when Sally was just 18.

The nightmare of those few months soon morphed into a beautiful reality as their daughter, now studying science and buying her own home in Caloundra, was followed by another girl and a boy.

The tight knit family might be said to be living the dream on the Sunshine Coast and Jarrod, ever the optimist, sees only blue sky ahead as his kids display a talent for making their own way in the world.

The wider family all chipped in recently to buy his 15-year-old son a small welder for his birthday and it would suit Jarrod just fine if the boy opted to become a boilermaker because, as he says, there’s plenty of good money to be made in a trade these days.

His role as parliamentary head kicker, the one who took the fight up to Labour when the LNP was in opposition, won’t diminish in the years ahead.

Jarrod, who readily admits there has to be an element of theatre in parliamentary performances, says part of his job is to constantly remind the Queensland electorate “just how bad Labor was.’’

“I have to keep the pressure on them, even in government,’’ he says.

‘We (the LNP) have to tell people, ‘do not go back there.

“Don’t go back to the Labor Party, remember what it was like with the chaos, the crisis, the confusion, Steven Miles, Grace Grace, (Meaghan) Scanlon, the internal fights they were having.

“For goodness sake, they are having the same fights in Opposition as they were in government.’’

He’s going to play a key role in the planning for the 2032 Olympics and his hard man image will be enhanced as he pushes through legislation enabling the creation of Olympic infrastructure which will override a few environmental and cultural heritage laws.

“But we can’t muck around, we only have less than seven years,’’ he says.

“As the Premier travels, and as I travel around regional Queensland, you can see how regional mayors have become excited by the games.

“They can see how it benefits their community _ they can smell it.’’

“They will get grassroots sporting infrastructure, agriculture, a chance to market produce _ imagine on the world stage saying, ‘veggies form Lockyer Valley, wine from the Granite Belt, beef from Rocky.

“I mean, what an amazing opportunity.’’

His relationship with Premier David Crisafulli has always been good even if he is the night owl and the Premier the early riser.

He often works until midnight while the Premier can be up at 3.30am to hit the gym but they link up every morning around 6am with a telephone call.

His wife Sally will still join him on the floor for rock and roll dancing while the Elvis impersonations are likely to continue, purely because he doesn’t see why being Deputy Premier should rob him of bringing a bit of fun into his own life, as well as the lives of those around him.

He tells the story of Ann, a local aged care resident, who begged him to come to the aged care home to do some Elvis songs a while ago.

When he agreed he found that Ann had put up posters around the home advertising an impending full-scale Elvis Show by the local state MP.

“I told her _ ‘Ann, I am not a full time Elvis impersonator, I’m a sort of karaoke guy.

“But I went ahead with it anyway and did about five songs and it went well.’’

A few months later Ann died and a member of her family called to say it was Ann’s dying wish that Jarrod would come to say a few words at her memorial.

But he had to arrive dressed as Elvis.

It was a genuine dilemma.

Jarrod could not, as a member of state parliament, arrive at what was essentially a funeral wearing a sequin jumpsuit,

So he settled on a compromise.

He dressed conservatively, went to the podium, pulled out his most flamboyant, full bottle, viva Las Vegas Elvis Presley sunglasses, put them on and sent Ann off with a few kind words.

“Ann would have understood?’’ I ask.

“Oh yeah, everyone loved it.’’

Rump Steak medium rare (Deputy Premier) well done (Michael Madigan) with mushroom sauce, salad and chips. 9/10.