David Crisafulli gets straight to work on youth crime

Queensland Premier-elect David Crisafulli says there will be two parliamentary sittings before the end of the year, with the LNP’s youth crime policy to be law by Christmas, as Steven Miles declares he wants to stay on as Labor leader.

LNP leader David Crisafulli and his deputy Jarrod Bleijie at a press conference in Brisbane. Picture: NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

David Crisafulli has recommitted to Queensland’s target of net zero emissions by 2050, and said he would deliver a new plan for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics in 100 days.

Asked whether he would be more direct with Queenslanders as Premier than he was during the campaign – when he refused for weeks to say what his personal position was on abortion, or explain the state LNP’s rejection of nuclear power, or what option he’d prefer as a marquee Olympic stadium – Mr Crisafulli rejected the question.

“I have to push back on that,” he said.

“I said the big four issues that would define our government, and we put forward solutions and targets for all of them, and Queensland has backed it, and they backed it hard… I urge you to reflect on the magnitude of what has been achieved. It’s beyond anything we could have expected, and it’s a ringing endorsement of the plan we took forward.”

The four issues that the LNP campaigned hard on were the “crises” of youth crime, housing, health and cost of living.

Mr Crisafulli said he intended to visit the Governor on Sunday, and he and his deputy would be sworn in on Monday into interim roles, before a full Cabinet swearing-in in coming days.

Mr Crisafulli said the “discipline and unity” of his MPs – even through four hard years of Oppositon – stood the Liberal National Party in good stead to be in government.

Miles wants to stay on as Labor leader

Defeated Queensland Premier Steven Miles has declared he wants to stay on as Labor leader in Opposition, after officially resigning as Premier at Government House on Sunday.

Speaking to journalists at Parliament House in Brisbane, Mr Miles said he had called Mr Crisafulli on Sunday morning and congratulated him.

“Clearly Queenslanders for some time have wanted to see a change of government,” he said.

He was criticised on Saturday night for failing to concede defeat or congratulate Premier-elect David Crisafulli and the Liberal National Party.

Mr Miles said existing Labor MPs had to aim to return to government at the next election in four years, and said it was clear Labor had “lost connection” with regional Queenslanders.

“We will need to listen to them and hear from them precisely what they want to see us do different, and then based on that, we’ll build over the next four years a program to take to the next election,” he said.

Senior Labor figures won’t challenge Miles

Cameron Dick will not challenge Steven Miles for the Labor leadership if the former premier decides to stay on as opposition leader after Saturday night’s Queensland election loss.

Sources close to Mr Dick have confirmed that Mr Miles’s current deputy believes the leader “ran a good campaign” and has the “right to retain the leadership” if he wants it.

“If he nominates, the DP (Deputy Premier) will not contest,” a source said.

Mr Miles is due to publicly declare his intention shortly.

Senior Labor MP Shannon Fentiman also ruled out a challenge for the ALP leadership.

Under Labor rules, the leadership of the party is automatically spilled after a defeat.

In Mr Miles’s Saturday night speech to the party faithful he did not concede defeat to Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli, and failed to congratulate his opponent or acknowledge his family, as is traditional.

In a defiant speech, he said he would “never stop holding the LNP to account,” a statement some in his party interpreted as him indicating he wanted to stay on as Opposition leader.

Sources close to Ms Fentiman, the most senior member of the Left faction behind Mr Miles, said she had ruled out a challenge if he wanted to remain as leader.

“She will back Steven’s position,” they said.

“He ran a really good campaign and should be proud of that.”

Another source said Ms Fentiman did not want to split support of the Left faction.

Cameron Dick. Picture: Scott Powick

Shannon Fentiman. Picture: Scott Powick

Some of Ms Fentiman’s supporters on Saturday night were hopeful she would contest.

But the Right faction’s Mr Dick – Mr Miles’s Deputy Premier and Treasurer – said he had not yet made a decision whether he would run or not.

Asked whether Mr Miles should stay on as Opposition leader, Mr Dick pointedly refused to say.

“It’s too early,” he told the ABC’s Insiders program, flagging he would be “reaching out” to his colleagues to talk about what should happen next.

“I honestly have not made a decision yet.”

Mr Dick said the party needed to “heal a little bit” but needed to “have a good look at ourselves”.

“Whoever is the leader … has to rebuild trust in regional Queensland,” he said.

The Woodridge MP said Labor lost trust on crime, particularly in the regions, where the ALP government appears to have lost seats it has held for more than a hundred years, including Mackay.

Labor strategists and MPs will be doing the numbers on the remade caucus and factional breakdown. The Left was dominant under the Palaszczuk-Miles governments.

When Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was pushed to resign in December, Mr Miles and Mr Dick were installed as the leadership team in a factional and union deal.

Ms Fentiman – the third leadership aspirant – was sidelined without having the chance to test her numbers in caucus.