Gold Coast Federal Minister Steve Ciobo believes Liberals can win

GOLD Coast Federal Minister Steven Ciobo is back in the city after a messy week in Canberra saying his Coalition Government can still win next year’s election despite poll doldrums.

GOLD Coast’s Steven Ciobo is shrugging off his Liberal-led Coalition Government’s worst poll result in a decade, saying they can still win the next election.

Mr Ciobo, reappointed to Cabinet as Defence Industry Minister under new Prime Minister Scott Morrison, returned to the Gold Coast yesterday bullish about the future under the new leader.

A Newspoll result in The Australian this morning showing the Coalition primary vote slumping to 33 per cent after last week’s messy departure of Malcolm Turnbull.

Former Tourism Minister Steve Ciobo - now Defence Industry Minister - has returned to the Gold Coast after a turbulent week in Canberra. Picture: Jerad Williams

Asked if they could win the next election over Labor, Mr Ciobo said: “Absolutely. I absolutely believe if you look at the track record of the Coalition now in Government we are delivering and delivering in spades.

“The choice ultimately that all Australians and Gold Coasters will have at the next election will be our plan for more tax relief, stronger economic growth and paying down debt versus Labor’s plan for $200 billion in extra taxes and a policy change in terms of negative gearing that I believe will do massive damage to the Gold Coast property market.”

Mr Ciobo is shruggling of the Coalition Government’s worst poll result in a decade: “I absolutely believe if you look at the track record of the Coalition now in Government we are delivering and delivering in spades.” Picture: Jerad Williams

Asked what the point of the last week’s upheaval had been given the elevation of Mr Morrison, Mr Ciobo said: “We haven’t had a change of Government, we’ve had a change of leader. There will be differences going forward.

“He’s a new Prime Minister, there will be differences. But it’s not like we’ve swapped out the Coalition for the Greens.

“I'm not sure what profound changes people are expecting, we have a new leader, our own team, and our city has never had a louder voice than it does right now in the Federal Government.”

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison - Mr Ciobo believes the Coalition can turn around disastrous polling in the wake of last week’s leadership turmoil and win next year’s election. Picture by Sean Davey.

Mr Ciobo refused to engage on his role in last week’s upheaval which saw Peter Dutton challenge to be Prime Minister before Mr Turnbull was ultimately replaced by Mr Morrison.

“Frankly I don’t think the people I represent have any interest in that, I barely have any interest in that to be blunt.

“My focus is about effecting changing for the city, change for the commmunity that represents what it is they are after.”

Mr Morrison appointed Fadden’s Stuart Robert as assistant Treasurer and Mr Ciobo - who resigned as Tourism, Trade and Investment Minister last week, saying it was clear Mr Turnbull had lost party room support - as Defence Industry Minister.

Mr Ciobo, when asked about his role in the initial support for Peter Dutton to challenge for the Prime Minister role, said: “Frankly I don’t think the people I represent have any interest in that.” Picture: Jerad Williams

McPherson’s Karen Andrews takes on the Industry, Science and Technology portfolio and Wright’s Scott Buchholz was made Assistant Minister for Roads and Transport.

Mr Ciobo said he was “excited” for his new role and didn’t see it as a demotion from his previous Ministerial post: “It’s acutally a promotion in terms of the hierarchy of Cabinet. But what matters is the opportunity to be in Cabinet and play a role in several things - the first is to be a really strong voice for the Gold Coast inside the Federal Government.

“We want to continue to diversify Gold Coast economy. We have strong presence in tourism, with respect to education and construction. Defence as an industry is an area we have really solid businesses.”

Mr Ciobo said Mr Morrison would do “an outstanding job as Prime Minister, he has my full support.”

Senator Murray Watt said Mr Ciobo resigning the Tourism portfolio is a blow for the Gold Coast. Picture: Gary Ramage

Gold Coast Labor senator Murray Watt said while he supported having as many Gold Coast Federal Ministers as possible, it was a “problem” the city had lost Mr Ciobo from the Tourism portfolio.

“You really want to have a seat at the table when it comes to the tourism industry,” Mr Watt said.

Mr Watt said he was happy to fight the next election on the platforms Mr Ciobo outlined.

“Whether it be opinion polls or the recent by-elections, Australians have made it clear they don’t want the LNP policies to continue. They don’t support giving big business a tax cut and want to see better support for schools and hospitals than what we are seeing under this Government,” Mr Watt said.

“In terms of negative gearing, even the Government modelling shows our negative gearing policy will not crash house prices in the way Mr Ciobo claims. What it will do is moderate some of the growth of house prices we are seeing on Gold Coast and Australia and that’s good news for younger buyers who are locked out of the housing market at the moment.”