David Crisafulli would resign as premier if an LNP government fails to reduce crime victim numbers
Queensland election favourite David Crisafulli has pledged to resign as leader of the Liberal National Party if the number of crime victims do not fall during his first four-year term, if he is elected at the October 26 state poll.
Queensland election favourite David Crisafulli has pledged to resign as leader of the Liberal National Party if the number of crime victims do not fall during his first four-year term, if elected at the October 26 state poll.
In an extraordinary pledge made at the first debate of the state election campaign, Mr Crisafulli accused the third-term Labor government of creating a “generation of untouchable” youth criminals and vowed to drive down the total number of victims in the state or quit.
“Queensland has the highest number of victims, 289,657; now that’s larger than Victoria and NSW despite their surging population,” he said. “And sorry, but listening to the Premier, it’s the same rhetoric we’ve heard across the last 10 years.”
Premier Steven Miles defended the growth in crime victims, attributing the increase to more domestic violence victims reporting their attacks to police. “I think it is important David is honest about those victim numbers; they did go down under the (LNP) Newman government because they excluded a range of domestic violence offenders.”
Mr Miles and Mr Crisafulli each flew from Rockhampton to Brisbane for their opening debate on Thursday night at Nine’s Mount Coot-Tha studio.
The televised encounter was the first of three campaign debates, and the only one to be held before early voting begins on October 14.
The two clashed over crime, health and housing in a tense hour-long showdown, with Mr Crisafulli on the defensive for most of the night over his small-target policy strategy.
His planned overhaul of Queensland’s youth justice laws, which he has promised to pass through parliament before Christmas if elected, would ensure youths committing murder, manslaughter, serious assault and home invasions would be sentenced as if they were adults.
The Australian’s latest Newspoll puts the LNP 10 points clear of Labor in two-party-preferred terms, on track to a convincing victory if it keeps that support.
The Australian’s Associate Editor Jamie Walker’s verdict
Chalk this one up as a narrow-points win to Steven Miles. He managed to push his LNP opponent into some uncharacteristic stumbles, especially an ill-advised pledge by David Crisafulli to quit as premier if youth crime rates don’t come down within 12 months of a change in government. Is it enough to move the needle for Labor? Probably not. Miles needed a knockout punch in the opening leaders debate which wasn’t forthcoming.
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