David Crisafulli’s first days stepping into local government politics

The man tipped to be the next Queensland Premier was once known as ‘the fastest mouth in the North’ as former colleagues — and the spaghetti-eating champion himself — reflects on his career.

Doing battle in the Italian Festival spaghetti eating competition are David Crisafulli, the winner, and Paul Cosentino, taken in 1999. Picture: Scott Radford Chisholm

The man predicted by bookies as the next likely person to become Queensland Premier was once known as ‘the fastest mouth in the North’ for his ability to chow down on spaghetti in record time.

Twenty-five years ago David Crisafulli, now 45, was featured in North Queensland newspapers for dominating the spaghetti-eating competition at Ingham’s Italian Festival.

Around the same time he enrolled to study at James Cook University, and completed his cadetship at the Herbert River Express, with his byline soon featuring across the sport and council rounds.

Mr Crisafulli has had a meteoric rise as a political leader, which he acknowledges was due to the opportunities available to him when he moved to Townsville in 2000 and became a Win News reporter, also filing stories for News Corp and covering the Cowboys and Fire WNBL.

He was just 25 years old when he was elected as a Townsville City Councillor in 2004, representing mostly Cranbrook, but was a political outsider within the chamber led by Mayor Tony Mooney.

Townsville City Council division 10 candidate David Crisafulli running with his dog before the 2004 local government election.

The loner status within the Mooney council changed when the Townsville and Thuringowa councils amalgamated in 2008, with Les Tyrell voted in as mayor and Mr Crisafulli seen as an instrumental part in that campaign.

The Team Tyrell campaign included familiar faces in the 2024 state election campaign, such as Burdekin MP Dale Last, and Thuringowa candidate Natalie Marr, but it was Mr Crisafulli who was chosen for the deputy mayor role.

It was a role he served until he successfully campaigned for the state seat of Mundingburra in 2012, and the Bulletin’s archives show his confidence and familiarity in front of cameras, whether it be volunteering at the McDonalds drive-through for McHappy Day, or capturing his last day as deputy mayor packing his office.

David Crisafulli at a press conference after his first Townsville City Council meeting in 2004. Picture: Ian Hitchcock

McHappy Day at Aitkenvale McDonalds in 2011.

Mr Crisafulli acknowledges he is a private person, prides himself on having run a disciplined opposition team without leaks as he focuses on a narrow platform of issues, and refuses to be baited at press conferences to react in the heat of the moment.

But his political colleagues of the past, a surprising number who remain connected to his ambitions, have always viewed him as serious, single-minded and driven.

Burdekin MP Dale Last now serves as a shadow cabinet minister under Mr Crisafulli’s leadership, but their professional relationship spans more than 20 years, when he briefed the media as the Townsville Police Station’s officer-in-charge.

Team Tyrell is announced with Dale Last, Les Tyrell and David Crisafulli.

“David used to interview me when he was a journo, and I was the OIC of the police station, so he used to come and interview me all the time,” Mr Last said.

“More often than not, David was the TV journo that would turn up and interview me.

“He was very articulate, he would always research the issue, you’d also say that he was very tenacious.

“He would go that extra mile for the story.”

Former Townsville councillor Fay Barker worked with Mr Crisafulli during his first days as a local politician when they were first elected.

“I know how he thinks, and I know what drives him,” Ms Barker said.

Fay Barker and David Crisafulli pictured together inspecting a drainage gutter in Stagpole Street, West End. Picture: Davey Rintala

“He’s got these underlying strengths … he has an absolutely amazing commitment to family and remembering his roots.

“He was so young and so green, yet he was tenacious in terms of how he approached things.

“He was steely, he didn’t worry what people thought of him, if he knew he was right he would get up and say it.”

She said they were both the outsiders within the council led by a Labor ideology.

“They really, really treated him disrespectfully, very badly because he wasn’t a member of a particular political team,” Ms Barker said.

The then-Townsville City councillor David Crisafulli with his wife Tegan and daughter Georgia, who was two-years-old when the picture was taken.

“So they were going to teach him a lesson.

“But they didn’t.

“They nicknamed him The Kid. Kid Crisafulli … I felt very much close to David and protective of him, I felt protection towards him, and I would honour his bravery, I guess that’s a mother’s perspective and I’m not his mother.”

Ex-mayor Les Tyrell was the first mayor to lead the council after the amalgamation with Thuringowa, defeating Mr Mooney and three other mayoral candidates in the 2008 election with 55 per cent of the vote.

The councils had to merge their resources and staff were not allowed to made redundant for three years, which meant there were two and sometimes three people in the same job.

Mr Tyrell said Mr Crisafulli, who was approaching 30, had been an “outstanding choice” for the deputy role.

Team Tyrell members (from back, left) Rob McCahill, Ray Gartrell, Sen-Sgt Dale Last, Vern Veitch and (front) Cr Brian Hewett, Suzanne Blom, Natalie Marr, Cr David Crisafulli, Cr Les Tyrell, Cr Deanne Bell, Cr Jenny Lane, Tony Parsons and Brenda-Anne Parfitt, pictured in December 2007.

“He was a young fellow who liked to solve problems, was willing to work hard, to bring the city forward, and he was a logical choice really,” Mr Tyrell recalled.

“One thing I’ll always remember, he said to me, ‘give me all the tough jobs and I’ll try to solve them,’ and he was true to his word.

“He doesn’t give up without a fight, quite a number of times when I’ve felt a case was lost he continued on and came to a good conclusion, and he was a popular fellow with the community.”

Many years later, a more experienced Mr Crisafulli sits in Riverview Tavern, the pub around the corner from his former university where he studied journalism.

“I was increasingly becoming frustrated with the local council … I just got involved with politics and I was encouraged to run for what was then a 100 per cent Labor Party council,” Mr Crisafulli recalled.

“And I ran for Division 10 and it was a very safe Labor (seat) … I was encouraged to run, and I didn’t expect to win, but I wanted to send a message that the council could do a lot better.

David Crisafulli packing up his office on his last day as Deputy Mayor in 2012 before he sets his sights on the seat of Mundingburra.

“I have to say the suburb in the state that has done the most for me and my family is Cranbrook, at the time that would have been 80 per cent of Division 10.

“Cranbrook took up on me as a young person wanting to represent them and you know, I’ve never forgotten that.”

Mr Crisafulli left the council in 2012 and successfully ran for the seat of Mundingburra, and astonishingly, was quickly appointed as Local Government Minister under Campbell Newman before he was 33 years old.

Thuringowa Member Sam Cox, Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill with Local Government Minister David Crisafulli at Townsville City Council.

Political opponents including Thuringowa MP Aaron Harper criticise Mr Crisafulli for leaving Townsville after the controversial Newman government’s defeat in 2015, while also linking him to the politics of the day, such as the sacking of government workers.

But Mr Crisafulli said at the recently-held Bush Summit at the Ville that his family set up a business and “things took us to the other end of the state”.

He would not speculate on whether he would be the party’s leader if he remained in Townsville, instead of representing Broadwater.

LNP leader David Crisafulli addressed concerns in Townsville such as the performance of the local government, where he studied as a journalist, and served as a Townsville City councillor and deputy mayor.

“Regardless of where my head hits the pillow, I’m driven to be good for this part of the world, and I owe North Queensland a great deal, and I know it needs a government that gets it,” he said.

“It’s been a long time since there’s been a premier of the state who understands North Queensland the way I would if given a great opportunity, and I love this place and I owe it a great deal.”

And when asked if he could still take on a spaghetti-eating contest, Mr Crisafulli answered: “have you got 10 minutes?

“I’m a little smaller these days but I’ll give it a go.”

Originally published as David Crisafulli’s first days stepping into local government politics