LNP premier-elect David Crisafulli ready to push Anthony Albanese for extra cash

David Crisafulli is under pressure to promote more women and regional MPs into his cabinet, as he vowed to push Anthony Albanese’s federal government for extra funding.

Queensland premier-elect David Crisafulli on Sunday. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

David Crisafulli is under pressure to cut “dead wood” from his frontbench and promote more women and regional MPs into his cabinet, as the premier-elect vowed to push Anthony Albanese’s federal government for extra funding for Queensland infrastructure.

The Liberal National Party leader – whose resounding victory on Saturday night ended nearly a decade of Labor rule in the state – wasted no time dismissing Steven Miles’s top bureaucrat, Mike Kaiser, on Sunday morning and preparing for two parliamentary sittings before Christmas to push through his controversial “adult crime, adult time” laws that will see minors tried as adults for serious crimes such as rape and murder.

A statewide primary vote swing of 6 per cent to the LNP delivered the party a decisive majority, and saw Labor lose at least 17 seats to Mr Crisafulli, robbing the Labor ranks of two sitting ministers and with the seats of two more in doubt.

As counting continued in five electorates in the 93-seat parliament, the LNP was sitting on 51 seats – 47 is required for a majority – compared to Labor’s 32, the Katter’s Australian Party three, the Greens one, and one independent.

Mr Crisafulli, 45, said the LNP’s win was a vindication of his crime-focused campaign.

“Considering where we started from, in historic terms, I said it was like climbing a mountain. Well, it was like climbing a mountain weighed down with a backpack and in the sleeting snow,” he said.

Mr Miles and Labor suffered a primary vote swing of nearly 7 per cent statewide, but the voters punished the third-term government particularly severely in regional Queensland, forcing the loss of the heartland seats of Rockhampton and Mackay, which had been in ALP hands for nearly all of the past century.

Labor has been left with just three confirmed seats north of Brisbane – Cairns, Gladstone and Bundaberg – and party insiders were shocked by the large swing against the party in the seemingly safe seat of Maryborough, where the government spent billions on train manufacturing.

All three of Labor’s Townsville-based seats, the epicentre of the LNP’s so-called crime crisis, were won by the LNP, along with the far north Queensland seats of Cook, Barron River and Mulgrave.

Seats won by Labor during the 2020 pandemic election – Caloundra, Pumicestone, Hervey Bay and Nicklin, dubbed the “Palaszczuk pensioner” seats – all fell back to the LNP.

Labor’s heavy losses were offset by winning back South Brisbane from the Greens, recapturing Ipswich West, which fell to the LNP at a March by-election, and the surprise retention of the Wide Bay seat of Bundaberg, which had been the most marginal seat in the state.

Mr Miles, who will stay on as Labor leader despite the defeat, conceded his party had “lost connection” with regional Queenslanders, but insisted the result was better than it could have been.

“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.

Former premier Steven Miles leaves Parliament House with wife Kim after conceding victory to the LNP on Sunday morning. Picture: Lachie Millard

Mr Crisafulli and deputy Jarrod Bleijie will be sworn into interim roles on Monday, before a full cabinet is appointed in coming days, and LNP sources say the premier-elect is under fresh pressure to increase the number of women in cabinet, from six in his 19-member shadow frontbench.

Any changes to the frontbench he took to the election would be a broken promise by Mr Crisafulli, who repeatedly insisted he would take the same team in the same portfolios into government.

“He is determined to drag the LNP into the modern era,” one source said.

“Crisafulli’s great challenge is that he has competent and skilled people that are coming on to his backbench who will quickly show they are ministerial material.

“He is burdened with a large number of tired and underperforming frontbenchers that he has to try and transition out over the course of the term.”

The source said Mr Crisafulli’s frontbench was over-represented on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, and would need at least one new ministerial appointment from the state’s north.

Another LNP source, who is close to Mr Crisafulli, said he expected the LNP leader to use his much-hyped ministerial key performance indicator to cut “dead wood” from his cabinet within a year.

“That’s how he’ll get renewal,” the source said.

The insider said there would be pressure on Mr Crisafulli to elevate former federal senator Amanda Stoker into the cabinet, given several of the LNP’s new MPs are conservative women, such as Ms Stoker.

Speculation was growing on Sunday of a widespread frontbench reshuffle, with former federal prosecutor Laura Gerber rumoured to be considered for attorney-general.

LNP sources said Ros Bates had earned a “huge amount of respect and praise” for her tenacity in the health portfolio during the past four years in opposition but there were “genuine concerns she won’t be up for the job as a minister”.

“There is speculation Tim Nicholls could move into health, he is a good administrator, and there is some talk of Christian Rowan as well.”

Mr Crisafulli is said to have been impressed with the performance of former leader Deb Frecklington and there is talk she will be rewarded with a senior economic role, either infrastructure or finance, a promotion from her shadow portfolio of energy and water.

Mr Crisafulli spoke with Mr Albanese for 20 minutes on Sunday, and said he had already begun lobbying for the federal government to increase the state’s share of infrastructure spending from a 50-50 split to 80-20.

“I want Queenslanders to know that I’m on their side, and I’m going into bat for Queensland, and whatever the colour of government is in Canberra, that’s what they’re going to get from us,” he said.