LNP leader David Crisafulli considers deal to preference Greens over Labor

Preferencing the Greens over Labor at next year’s Queensland election could backfire on the LNP.

Taking a break – Queensland Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli at his local coffee shop. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Queensland Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli will weigh whether to preference Greens candidates over Labor at next year’s state election and risk a backlash from his conservative base.

The tactic worked a treat in 2020 to deliver the inner-Brisbane seat of former deputy premier Jackie Trad to the Greens, costing the state ALP one of its brightest stars.

But hardliners in the LNP are aghast at giving another leg-up to a far-left minority party that is poised to make further gains when Queenslanders go to the polls in 12 months.

David Crisafulli raises a sweat during an early-morning workout near his Gold Coast home. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Mr Crisafulli said the LNP was entitled to counter the “corrupt system” of compulsory preferential voting responsible for delivering up to 80 per cent of the Greens’ vote to Labor.

“Now, the same doesn’t happen on the other side of the draw – the preferences on the right don’t flow in the same way that the Greens’ preferences flow to Labor,” he told The Weekend Australian.

“So it is a corrupt system … and I have a big concern about the prospect of a Labor-Greens coalition. They will say no deals … but they’ve said that before and they then broke the promise anyway. So I am deeply concerned by that.”

Mr Crisafulli, gearing up for the make-or-break year of his political career, faced a backlash from LNP conservatives when he initially backed the push for Indigenous treaty-making by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

The scene was set for a showdown at the LNP’s state council meeting in Brisbane this weekend until Mr Crisafulli withdrew his support after the failed voice referendum, where Queensland recorded the nation’s highest No vote. Ms Palaszczuk then walked away from the treaty process, claiming the agreements could not be made without bipartisan backing.

The Opposition Leader wouldn’t be drawn on when a decision would be taken on preferencing the Greens over Labor, except to say it would “be determined ­before the election”.

But in a warning shot, LNP powerbroker David Goodwin, a convener of the influential Christian Right grouping, said the Greens were “extremists” and it was irresponsible of any political party to aid them.

“There is no circumstance in which they should ever be preferenced and the LNP should not have preferenced the Greens in South Brisbane at the last election,” he said.

“The Greens are Marxists who wish to deindustrialise Australia and who proudly promote anti-family policies.”

The Greens broke out in Queensland at last year’s federal election, grabbing three inner-Brisbane seats, two of them held by the LNP (Brisbane, Ryan) and Kevin Rudd’s former seat of Griffith from the ALP.

Greens strategists are confident of adding the state electorate of Greenslopes, adjoining South Brisbane, to their existing two seats at the October 26, 2024, Queensland election, and say McConnel and Cooper on the northside are also promising.

The LNP must secure an ­additional 13 state seats on the 34 it holds to break Ms Palaszczuk’s three-election winning streak and return to power in Queensland.

Mr Crisafulli at his early morning gym session. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Mr Crisafulli said he was more intent on increasing the LNP’s primary vote than doing deals with the Greens, even if this was at Labor’s expense. “If that occurs, the preferences don’t matter,” he said.

The LNP in 2020 preferenced Labor last as a blanket measure – a position advocated by both the party organisation and then opposition leader Deb Frecklington.

Mr Crisafulli has shunned “freelancing” on so-called value ­issues in favour of zeroing in on the “things people care about”, headed by youth crime and the state’s public health system.

He said a review of the ­reformed abortion law promised by Ms Frecklington ahead of the last election would not proceed if the LNP won this time.