John-Paul Langbroek on why the LNP in Government could have done more for the Gold Coast
THE Gold Coast’s John-Paul Langbroek is one of the Parliament’s longest serving MPs. He admits the LNP in government could have done more for the city, reveals his admiration for Peter Beattie and tells why Labor fails to understand the Glitter Strip.
QLD Votes
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD Votes. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE Gold Coast’s John-Paul Langbroek is one of the Parliament’s longest serving MPs. He admits the LNP in government could have done more for the city, reveals his admiration for Peter Beattie and tells why Labor fails to understand the Glitter Strip.
HOW MANY SEATS WILL THE LNP WIN
It’s the final week of polling, you’ve been around the State, you’d know your own party’s polling?
Well actually I don’t. They just don’t tell MPs.
You really don’t know how you are going in those 93 seats?
No, I do not. In fact I reckon because of the return of compulsory preferential voting and this issue of a third party (One Nation) rearing its head that we do have 93 separate by-elections happening next Saturday.
Do you think we won’t have a result on the night, that it will come down to counting in marginals in the following week?
If you think that normally with just Vote One, which has been around and focused on since 2001 when Peter Beattie really used it as an art form to say just Vote One, the trends in Queensland have always become very evident early on the night of an election. But now we have compulsory preferential which means going to every vote in every seat. That means potentially postal votes and absentee votes.
Have you picked up different flavours throughout the State? It doesn’t seem there’s any particular movement here on the Gold Coast.
It’s a completely different feeling depending on where you are. It looks like to my mind the Premier has basically given up on Townsville with the Adani announcement in week one, and then throughout regional Queensland that we have a sense of people being disillusioned with politicians who do not speak about the things the public are interested in.
GOLD COAST HOT SEATS
Polling in the new seat of Bonney showed it was 50-50 between the major parties. Is the LNP doing private polling? If not, has there been any pre-poll feedback?
I was at pre-polling on Saturday at Spotlight at Ashmore. (LNP candidate) Sam O’Connor and his family were there, and there was an independent there at the same time but not a Labor opponent, and no One Nation. It’s hard to judge on when you could have every seat possibly on the Coast could have gone through there. But I know he’s working hard, he has a very tough challenge, that’s where I think Labor has moved Rowan Holzberger from Southport to Bonney because they see that as one where they are desperate to get a foothold on the Coast.
In Gaven, Labor has endorsed Meaghan Scanlon, one of the few speakers at the Labor launch the other day, they clearly want to win that one.
Gaven has been a swing seat for a long time. Labor haven’t won it for a long time. I’m confident that Sid (Cramp) is part of the Gold Coast team. Law and order is a big issue here. He’s (Sid) riding the train with the rest of us on that issue. I think the policies we’ve announced, he should be right with a lot of hard work.
The other seat Labor is targeting is Currumbin. Kate Jones accused (sitting LNP MP) Jann Stuckey of doing quite a lot of whining and not a lot of hard work. Is that a fair shot?
I read that article. I think Gold Coasters hate it when we criticise a person. In 2004 when I defeated Lex Bell who was a patient of mine and an independent, I actually rang him on the day I was starting and said “Lex I will never make this personal”. I think Jann is the hardest working local member in her own electorate on the Gold Coast — that includes me. Jann does more surveys, will be at the opening of an envelope. She wasn’t at our launch. That was in Brisbane. She was down here working.
This is difficult to predict but One Nation has not stood candidates in the two most marginal Coast seats — Bonney and Gaven. Do you think this will help the LNP win them both and possibly gain government?
Look any time you have less opponents that could potentially take away some of your votes, that’s a good thing. But I think in this case — and my seat is a classic example — One Nation got 17.4 per cent in 1998 and they couldn’t find anyone to run this time. I’m not sure that the One Nation juggernaut is able to get as many people who are prepared to hang that One Nation sign around their neck. While there is a core of people who say we like them, I think there are other people who are saying we don’t want to be identified with a lot of their policies. The three seats where they are running on the Coast they’ve preferenced against the sitting members. There’s no love between them and us.
TIM NICHOLLS AND LIFE AFTER CAMPBELL NEWMAN
LNP leader Tim Nicholls says “my leadership is different and I lead a team. We will not let you down”. Labor, particularly in Parliament, always try to link him as Treasurer when Campbell Newman was Premier. There is a huge billboard on the M1 as you head north showing them both. How is he different in style to Campbell Newman?
Well, you only have to look at the commitments that we’ve made to the Gold Coast over the last month, including a second M1, a major infrastructure plan today, which was for 1800 jobs. In our term while we completed light rail and funded the Commonwealth Games, there is no doubt because of focus on repairing the budget on time that we didn’t do as much for the Gold Coast in our term as we could have. And local members, we have expressed that with a lot of concern, and that is where we are obviously different to where we were. Having said that, we had a budget we were trying to fix. We made significant repairs there. In terms of future planning, we are better at this time than we were in the 2015 election.
And he’s seen the need to address that?
Absolutely. His mantra about jobs, jobs, jobs applies to the Gold Coast as much as to the rest of the State. Whilst we have promised more for the Coast now, we found $1.5 billion for the Games which weren’t funded when we came to Government, including all the infrastructure and the upgrade of Bundall Road.
Labor is running a scare campaign, the union signs outside Coast polling booths point to job cuts under the LNP and “life will be grim under Tim”. Do you that will have traction?
I think it’s a tried and true formula that Labor try to repeat all the time. I hope it doesn’t resonate with people. We might just as well give up the game if we can just tell people we are very fearful.
THE GAMES BEHIND THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES
You’ve been the Opposition Games spokesman. You’ve had to ask a lot of tough questions in the Parliament. Labor on occasions has branded yourself and others in the LNP as not being on board with the Games or trash talking the Games. Is that true?
No. Look we know as Gold Coasters that we are all very proud of the Games being here, we’re confident they will be the best ever because of the infrastructure preparation being well ahead of what they were for example in Delhi. It doesn’t mean you don’t ask the tough questions. When you’ve got subbies including friends of mine — I didn’t know they were part of companies that weren’t being paid at the site for the village — then it’s fair enough to ask those questions.
Looking back on the questions, you asked about the traffic and transport plan, and whether GOLDOC will get the necessary sponsorship. What is your main concern?
The two biggest issues are transport and security for the Games. So I’ve had briefings — I’m thankful for Minister Jones to have those briefings from GOLDOC. But it’s also fair enough to ask when we see people pushed back in the M1 at Exits 41, 49 and 45 right now — they’re parked, and we say where is the traffic plan? Especially when the Commonwealth Games Federation themselves were expressing their concerns about the traffic. We had information given to us that indicated the Federation was concerned and Peter Beattie, who is a master at this, was only putting things out to bat away those concerns about the Federation.
If the LNP wins government, will you be supporting him to continue as GOLDOC chief?
Yes. I respected Nigel Chamier for the job he did as preceding chair in terms of getting a lot of the infrastructure planning right. There is no doubt that Peter Beattie is a marketing marvel. He’s got attributes — personal attributes, physical attributes that’s he’s very lucky to have. This is me speaking as a dentist — he’s got an up face, he’s never fazed by any question, he is a master in the media. I am concerned and I’ve said it publicly on my Twitter page that political opinions expressed when you are the chair of a statutory authority could be a little bit of an issue if they were to continue. But I’m confident it’s not going to be relevant if we lose on Saturday and it will be something I will have a frank and honest discussion with him if I become the Minister.
So your respect for him has increased away from the political sphere?
I’ve always had respect for him as a Premier and leader of his party. He doesn’t come across as a typical Labor Premier. Beattie as a pollie — good on sales, not so good on delivery. GOLDOC though are doing the delivery. He and other Labor luminaries must shake their head at the current mob of Labor pollies.
WHY LABOR CAN DELIVER A GAMES BUT NOT A COAST MP
Labor in Government has delivered a new hospital here, the light rail, the Games venues. Why is it they cannot deliver an MP?
They have said themselves — there’s been a shortcoming in the candidates they’ve chosen to represent them. Some of those issues about planning and actual delivery whether it’s a hospital or a light rail was a factor of them having been in government for a long time and we haven’t. So we actually opened the hospital, we opened the light rail. And I think most Queenslanders understand that you can’t ignore the second biggest city in the State just because their side which is represented in the city are not in the Government.
There is an argument that “Labor just does not get the Coast” and it goes with the debate about bikies and overturning the tough laws. The bikie brawl at Broadbeach was close to home for you, wasn’t it?
I was there that night — I’d been at Nobby’s Arc at Nobby’s and I came back to the Oasis where the car park is and saw some sort of commotion. There is no doubt they don’t understand the Coast in terms of those law and order issues. We had the tragic death of Damian Leeding in the years leading up. We had the Deputy Premier Paul Lucas and Neil Roberts the Police Minister who said there’s no problem with the Gold Coast. The laws that we subsequently brought in were welcomed by people on the Gold Coast. They’ve all been rolled back.
Kate Jones has been portrayed as the Minister for the Gold Coast, has there been that much representation from Labor down here in the last term?
If you’re a fly in fly out Minister there is no way your commitment is to the city itself. Labor had to have some representation here. And Kate is quite friendly and outgoing and that’s great but her allegiance is to her own electorate. If she really wanted to put it on the line she could have moved down here as she said she’d like to and run for the seat of Bonney.
THE FUTURE OF THE SPIT
You were among the LNP MPs and candidates absent from a recent Meet the Candidates meeting. Organisers were concerned about preserving The Spit and three-storey height limit through that area. What is your position?
The position is very clear. I spoke at the Main Beach Association at a luncheon where they had a fund raiser just a couple of months before that. I made it very clear then I don’t support a predetermined decision if you don’t have a master plan for The Spit. I said traffic and height are things that need to be dealt with before you talk about doing anything in that area. But I definitely don’t support what Labor did straight after that Main Beach Association meeting, canning 10,000 potential jobs (for the integrated resort project) simply to appease the Greens. I think we should have a master plan that involves all of the local community — local groups from the Yacht Club all the way up to Volunteer Marine Rescue, all the landlords, shopping centres, property owners and community associations. Let’s sit down again and talk about how we can enhance an area that no matter what people say is not Central park and it’s not Hyde Park — because I’ve been to both of those places. I think there’s some enhancements we can make but making sure we preserve it for my kids and my grandkids.
YOUR OWN FUTURE
You’ve been an MP since 2004, leader of your party, a Minister, would you be able to handle several more years on the Opposition front benches if the LNP failed to secure government?
Well of course those are the things you review after every election. Let’s wait and see what happens. I’ve been there 14 years. I will be among the most experienced members of the Parliament because we’ve had such a massive turnover over the last two elections especially. With Lawrence Springborg and Jeff Seeney leaving it only leaves people like Fiona Simpson and Joanne Miller from Bundamba who have been there longer than I have. I still love what I do.
Bates axed from health in major shake-up of new LNP frontbench
New Premier David Crisafulli has unveiled his first LNP frontbench but despite a promise to keep the main players intact, there has been a major shake-up.
Scanlon to become Coast’s own ‘opposition leader’ after win
Gaven MP Meaghan Scanlon will become the ‘Gold Coast’s Opposition leader’ after securing her northern seat of GAVEN in the region’s toughest state poll battle.