New Qld premier David Crisafulli and his inner circle: How they took down Labor

Soon after dropping his boxes in the opposition leader’s office, David Crisafulli picked his team and began charting a four-year course.

• New premier, what next for Qld?

Soon after dropping his boxes in the opposition leader’s office, David Crisafulli picked his team and began charting a four-year course to the top of 1 William St.

For 1444 days Mr Crisafulli and the LNP chipped away at fledgling Labor government as it struggled to emerge from managing Covid-19 with a clear agenda for Queensland.

While Mr Crisafulli’s discipline and work ethic has been a major part of the LNP winning office, an inner circle has provided sound advice to the man Queensland now calls its 41st premier.

After three years of a directionless strategy, one of Mr Crisafulli’s first moves was to bring

on Channel 9 reporter Rob Morrison as director of media and communications.

Mr Morrison was tasked with ending the rudderless nature of the opposition leader’s office and started mapping out a four-year plan to get to October 26.

The plan was sliced into segments, all measurable to track the LNP’s success.

Frontbenchers were each told to “win your lane” and open new flanks of attack against the government – which would eventually give Mr Crisafulli’s LNP its platform against “those big four crises that are impacting Queenslanders; youth, crime, health, housing and cost of living”.

In the broad church of the LNP, three of the premier-elect’s moderate colleagues feature in his inner circle.

David Janetzki, who will be named treasurer, and soon-to-be-ministers Brent Mickelberg, John-Paul Langbroek and Sam O’Connor act as Mr Crisafulli’s pratorian guard and sounding board.

Sam O'Connor has been among David Crisafulli’s trusted advisors. Picture: Liam Kidston.

They’re the 45-year-old’s closest and most trusted advisers in this new government.

While LNP sources say they are not close, Mr Crisafulli and his deputy Jarrod Bleijie have a strong “working relationship”.

It’s a similar approach to former leader and probable Attorney-General Tim Nicholls.

Mr Nicholls, the second LNP leader to lose to Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Labor in 2017, is held in high regard by Mr Crisafulli – but the pair aren’t “buddies”.

Mr Crisafulli also holds Deb Frecklington, the third and final LNP leader defeated by Ms Palaszczuk in 2020, in the same high regard – but they share few confidential moments.

Since that 2020 defeat, Mr Crisafulli and party president Lawrence Springborg have whipped the divided and misbehaving LNP organisation and its rogue branches into line – giving the party its first opportunity to govern in almost a decade.

The pair deserve significant credit for delivering power to the LNP.

“Lawrence didn’t want to be president, but he wanted us to win,” he said.

“It’s about him helping the LNP to be successful – he’s been massive.”

Mr Crisafulli and Mr Springborg have pieced together a divided party in four years, with unity a key platform of the LNP’s offering.

“We bat deep and we like each other,” Mr Crisafulli told The Sunday-Mail.

Closest to Mr Crisafulli outside the chamber is Richard Ferrett as chief of staff.

The pair have a long history, with Mr Ferret first joining Mr Crisafulli’s office during his time as local government minister between 2012 and 2015.

He returned when Mr Crisafulli became opposition leader and has been instrumental in maintaining a functioning office.

Pundits credit the relatively low turnover of staff in the opposition leader’s office, in part, to Mr Ferrett.

The LNP’s policy wonks Matt Tapsall, Tony Meredith and Katie Omrod have assisted and are tipped to take a central role in the government.