David Crisafulli has to take Queenslanders into his confidence after white-knuckle election ride
A win, is a win, is a win. David Crisafulli is Queensland’s new premier and he won’t want to dwell on the messy way this particular democracy sausage was made.
He should, because he needs to to learn from the missteps that went horribly close to blowing the election for the Liberal National Party.
The LNP achieved the magic number of 47 seats late last night, a majority in the 93-seat parliament. Mr Crisafulli will be trading up to the big office in 1 William Street, with the potential of booking further gains in the count of pre-poll and postal votes.
It’s still a far cry from the 10 seat-plus buffer that the LNP was confidently eyeing at the commencement of the 26-day campaign.
Mr Crisafulli has only himself to blame: his small target strategy bombed with voters and sent the LNP on a white-knuckle ride as momentum swung back Labor’s way.
Steven Miles deserves credit for not only saving the furniture for his party, but for putting the ALP into a competitive position as it enters opposition.
Mr Crisafulli, for his part, might reflect on his failure to take the electorate into his confidence and spell out exactly how he intends to make the hard decisions that Queensland is crying out for on everything from state debt, to energy policy and Olympics venues.
As Mr Miles noted last night, delivering an unconventional wrap-up speech that avoided a concession of defeat, the election delivered many more questions than answers about the LNP’s agenda in government.
Mr Crisafulli’s task now is to earn the approval that a sizeable chunk of the electorate withheld.
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