Opposition Leader David Crisafulli accused of ‘secretly’ living away from electorate in Brisbane

Labor is accusing Opposition leader and Member for Broadwater David Crisafulli of ‘secretly’ living in Brisbane after selling his Gold Coast canal home. He’s calling Labor ‘next level desperate’.

Labor is accusing Opposition leader David Crisafulli – the Member for Broadwater – of “secretly” living in Brisbane after selling a multi-million Gold Coast canal home three years ago.

The Crisafulli family is renovating an old Queenslander within walking distance of the Brisbane river in the inner city suburb of Bulimba.

Candidates running for the State election are not required to live in their electorate, only be enrolled in a Queensland electorate.

But Deputy Premier and Treasurer Cameron Dick has called out Mr Crisafulli - in the lead-up to the State poll on October 26 - for not being transparent about relocating from the Gold Coast.

“David Crisafulli is a fraud for saying he has been representing the Gold Coast while secretly living in Brisbane. David Crisafulli is living a lie in Bulimba,” Mr Dick said.

A spokesman for Mr Crisafulli described the attack as “next level desperate”.

Opposition leader and Broadwater MP David Crisafulli. Opponents are asking questions about his family residence in Brisbane’s Bulimba, far from the Gold Coast Broadwater which he represents as an MP.

The Bulletin has inspected the Australian Electoral Commission rolls in Brisbane and found Mr Crisafulli, and wife, Tegan, have suppressed their address and which electorate they can vote. Some MPs from all parties have done this for privacy reasons.

A Bulletin investigation of public property, council and company documents found:

* The family’s luxury canal front home in Mr Crisafulli’s seat of Broadwater was sold for $2.3 million in April 2021. It had been bought for $1.38 million in September 2015. Mrs Crisafulli is listed as the buyer;

* a month later, in May, a two-bedroom unit under Mrs Crisafulli’s name was bought at Oaks Casino Towers in Brisbane’s CBD as an owner-occupier property;

* In March 2023, company documents for Mrs Crisafulli’s consultancy firm were changed. Her residential address is listed as a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Hawthorne, next to Bulimba;

* A rental lease for that Hawthorne home had been signed in December 2022. A month earlier, property records show the CBD unit was sold;

* In August 2023, a three-bedroom home, built in 1920, in a prime redevelopment site at Bulimba near the river was bought for $1,025,000. Mrs Crisafulli is listed as the owner;

* Council records show an application was made to Brisbane City Council in December 2023 for a house extension and partial demolition. Designs show a pool and updated outdoor living areas;

* Council officers required some changes to the original plans, given the heritage nature of the site. After changes were made, they finally gave approval to the application in February this year.

Inspection of the site this week which shows construction fencing has been erected across the entrance and building materials, including bags of cement, fill the driveway.

David Crisafulli is the MP for Broadwater - here he was getting a jump on election campaigning by hopping on a boat and heading over to South Straddie to doorknock the 12 residents who live there. Photo by Richard Gosling.

In his Register of Interests, Mr Crisafulli says he has six mortgages and earns “rental income”.

Mr Crisafulli relocated to the Gold Coast after losing his north Queensland Mundingburra seat in the 2015 election.

He defeated sitting Broadwater MP Verity Barton in 2017 when he put his hand up for a tough preselection battle. Three years later he was Opposition leader.

The Deputy Premier and other Labor opponents have targeted him for being a “fly-in politician”.

“I feel sorry for Verity Barton and her electorate,” Mr Dick said.

“Ms Barton lost Broadwater because of some backroom deal by David Crisafulli, who has abandoned her electorate just like he abandoned Townsville, and abandoned creditors of his failed training company.”

Mr Dick and other Ministers including Gaven MP Meaghan Scanlon last month in State Parliament launched an unprecedented attack on Mr Crisafulli, about his previous role in the financially troubled Southern Edge Training before it went into liquidation in 2016 owing more than $6 million to creditors.

Mr Crisafulli in 2017 said the company was profitable during his short tenure and he was a “large creditor”, having not been paid for his services.

Deputy Premier and Treasurer Cameron Dick: “David Crisafulli is living a lie in Bulimba.” Picture: Liam Kidston

Mr Crisafulli was the director between December 2015 and April 2016 before it went into liquidation later that year on June 30.

Responding to the recent Labor attacks, he has questioned the timing, given the October poll, adding that there had been no wrongdoing and he had “met my obligations”.

Electoral Commission rules show candidates running for the State election are only required to be enrolled in a Queensland electorate. Council candidates must live in the local authority area.

Other than living in Queensland, State candidates must only satisfy they are not serving a prison sentence, have been found guilty of a major crime or a bankrupt.

In response to questions about Mr Crisafulli’s residence in another city to his Gold Coast seat, an LNP spokesperson said: “This is getting next level desperate for the Labor Party ahead of the election on October 26.

“Queenslanders are seeing more and more that all the Labor Party has left to offer the State are desperate personal attacks, because they created the Queensland housing crisis, cost-of-living crisis, youth crime crisis and health crisis, and Labor can’t fix them.

“The Labor Party are fully aware David’s job and family life obviously means he spends significant amounts of time in Brisbane. The Labor Party also knows he maintains a separate residence in the electorate where he stays, as he is tonight ahead of a major event in his electorate.

“If Queenslanders vote to show Labor the door in 2024, David would be the first Premier representing a seat outside of Brisbane in nearly 30 years and everyone understands the realities of balancing that.”

Mr Crisafulli is not alone in living outside his electorate, with former Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk representing Inala while living in the neighbouring LNP seat of Mount Ommaney.

Flashback: Campbell Newman and Kate Jones at a forum in 2012 where electorate living issues were discussed. Picture: Rob Maccoll.

In the 2012 State election campaign, a key issue was LNP leader Campbell Newman not living in Labor electorate Ashgrove. Kate Jones lost her seat but defeated Mr Newman in 2015.

The LNP constitution on rules for candidates says “in the case of a selection for a Federal Division, a State Electorate or a Local Authority the nominators must reside in the Division, Electorate or Local Authority area”.

Mr Dick on Friday defended LNP criticism he did not live in his electorate.

“I proudly live in the City of Logan. My house was in my electorate until the boundary moved 3km away,” he said.

“When I am on the roof cleaning my gutters I can see my electorate. Unlike David Crisafulli I have not cut and run, and I’ve not abandoned my electorate and the city it is in.”

If Mr Crisafulli wins, he’ll be the first Queensland Premier from a seat outside Brisbane since Rob Borbidge won in 1996.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who represents NSW seat Grayndler, resides in Canberra.

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