Editorial: David Crisafulli faces myriad challenges after election win

Queensland’s new premier has begun to show signs of breaking from the disciplined persona he presented during the campaign, writes the editor.

Premier-elect David Crisafulli speaks to media at Parliament House on Sunday morning, with deputy Jarrod Bleijie by his side. Picture Lachie Millard

Incoming premier David Crisafulli distinguished himself in his victory speech on Saturday night. Sadly, the same cannot be said for outgoing premier Steven Miles – who, some have said, disgraced himself.

That sounds pretty harsh, but it is a fair point. There is a longstanding convention in Australian politics that you pay respect to your opponent in your election night speech – even if the result is not yet clear, as Mr Miles claims was the case when he stood up (first, as is usually the case for the loser).

But Mr Miles broke with that convention. Instead, he delivered a version of his campaign stump speech, promising this and that, despite it being clear he had no path to even a victory in minority. This was, if you like, the equivalent of the Japanese soldier found on an island still fighting World War II in 1974.

It was weird. And his explanation yesterday that he ended up waiting until early on Sunday morning to call Mr Crisafulli also does not stand up to scrutiny, when it was very clear by 10pm that the LNP had won a majority. Mr Miles should have made that call then.

Sadly, despite his efforts to mop it up yesterday, this is what his time as premier will now be remembered for; being a sore loser. How this all ends up playing out in Mr Miles’s battle to recontest the Labor leadership will be an interesting postscript to this landslide election.

And it was a landslide. Other than their 2012 wipeout, this was the lowest primary vote for Labor in a Queensland election since 1908 – a statistic that makes a mockery of those inside the party trying to spin the false narrative that Mr Miles saved the furniture after replacing Annastacia Palaszczuk as premier last December.

The reality is that the last opinion poll before she was forced to resign – taken in October – had Labor trailing 48-52 in the two-party-preferred vote. Late yesterday the actual election two-party vote was 54-46. In terms of primary vote, that October YouGov poll for The Courier-Mail had Labor at 33 per cent – exactly what it polled in the real election a year on.

In terms of voter sentiment, 40 per cent of respondents said they were satisfied with the way Ms Palaszczuk was doing the job as premier last October. Fast forward a year, and just 34 per cent of those surveyed during the campaign were satisfied with the way Mr Miles was doing the same job.

But anyway, that’s all in the past. Mr Crisafulli will now lead the state as premier for the next four years, and there is every chance that Queenslanders will warm to him, now that he can break character from the disciplined persona he presented to the world during the campaign, and in the months and years leading into it.

There were signs of this in his first media conference yesterday, when Mr Crisafulli was grinning more broadly than Queenslanders had ever seen. He even laughed loudly when told Ms Palaszczuk had said during her election night outing on the Sky News panel that Mr Miles’s plan to host athletics at the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics at the old QEII Stadium was a step backwards.

We hope Mr Crisafulli is willing to now show Queenslanders more of his personality, now that he has won the battle that he had decided boring discipline was necessary for.

His own election night speech, where he paid a lovely tribute to Mr Miles – and outgoing MPs – was another good sign in this space.

Premier David Crisafulli faces myriad challenges. Picture: Lachie Millard

As premier, Mr Crisafulli now faces myriad challenges: to deliver on the many promises he has made to turn things around, from health and housing to youth crime. But perhaps the most visible will be how he threads the political needle on the new stadium that Brisbane needs, which will be briefly leased in 2032 to Games organisers.

Mr Crisafulli was still yesterday pointing to his 100-day venues review as the way forward, but did promise to deliver Queenslanders a plan they were proud of. We are not alone in waiting in eager expectation of that detail.

There is no greater opportunity for our state than the hosting of the Games, a legacy of Ms Palaszczuk’s. Let us hope that Mr Crisafulli has the courage to deliver the necessary outcome here, rather than one that unnecessarily backs a bad option to balance the politics of the regions – the very voters the LNP owes its astonishing victory to.

We also wish the likely incoming treasurer David Janetzki luck as he grapples with how to clean up the mess of years of the big-spending Labor administration that treated public money with the same regard one does cash in the Monopoly board game. We have confidence the LNP has learned its lessons from the excesses of the Campbell Newman era here. Again, it was good to hear Mr Crisafulli assure the state’s public servants that Labor’s repeated cuts scare campaign would remain nothing more than that.

When voters do decide to change the government, they change the state. We saw this in 1989 and 1996. We saw it in 2012, and again after the 2015 election. Mr Crisafulli has a clear mandate for change – a mandate of a scale rarely seen in Australian politics, state or federal.

He must remain humble, but he also must remain energetic. From what we have seen of him – and what we know of him – we have confidence Mr Crisafulli will be a good premier. We wish him well.

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