Queensland election: David Crisafulli named Queensland LNP leader

Broadwater MP David Crisafulli has been elected unopposed as the leader of the Liberal National Party.

David Crisafulli and Deb Frecklington arrive at the LNP partyroom on Thursday ahead of the leadership contest. Picture: Peter Wallis

Newly elected Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli says the party will review its painful election loss and “find a way” to break the dominance of Labor, which has governed for 26 of the past 31 years.

The Broadwater MP was elect­ed unopposed at a partyroom meeting at Parliament House on Thursday and will be assisted by deputy David Janetzki, who won a four-way contest with Burdekin MP Dale Last, Chatsworth MP Steve Minnikin and Moggill MP Christian Rowan.

The pair have been tasked with rebuilding the opposition, which suffered the loss of five seats at the October 31 election, two of which will be officially recounted by the electoral commission.

Their appointments came on the same day Annastacia Palas­zczuk’s cabinet team was officially sworn in at Government House, with the Premier revealing a further eight assistant ministers to accompany her 18 ministers.

Mr Crisafulli, who was not expected to face a challenge, made his way to the partyroom meeting on Thursday morning alongside outgoing leader Deb Frecklington. The leadership vote came after Ms Frecklington, in an about-face from her statement on election night, said she would not continue as party leader.

Her deputy, Tim Mander, also declined to run for a leadership position.

A former minister in the Newman government, Mr Crisafulli was first elected as the member for the Townsville seat of Mundingburra in 2012.

He lost the seat in 2015 but reappeared in 2017 in the Gold Coast electorate of Broadwater.

In a speech to his colleagues shortly after he was officially declared the leader, Mr Crisafulli acknowledged the party’s election defeat and the monumental task of trying to win government in October 2024.

“I look at the faces in front of me and we are smaller in number, but the fire burns,” he said.

“The quality of the men and women in this room, in my mind, presents a credible path for us to move forward.”

At a press conference, Mr Crisafulli said the election loss “hurt” but the party needed to scrutinise its campaign and accept the loss.

“We have to find a way to win,” he said. “If we get the mechanics right, we can be a good, humble generational government — that is what we need to strive towards.”

Accepting that voters had given Labor a mandate for the next four years, Mr Crisafulli said he would pick and choose which government policies the LNP would support.

His ascendancy came as recounts were ordered in two electorates that Labor narrowly took off the LNP.

The Electoral Commission of Queensland confirmed it would accede to a request from the LNP for a recount in the seats of Bundaberg and Nicklin, both north of Brisbane, after they swung to Labor.

After counting finished on Wednesday night, Labor had a victory in Bundaberg by 11 votes and finished 78 ahead in Nicklin.

Unlike the Australian Electoral Commission, the ECQ does not automatically conduct a recount if the difference is less than 100 votes.

If the result stands, Labor will hold 52 seats in the 93-seat unicameral parliament, a net increase of four after Labor lost Jackie Trad’s seat of South Brisbane to the Greens.

The LNP will hold 34 seats while the seven-member crossbench will consist of three from Katter’s Australian Party, two from the Greens, one from One Nation and independent Sandy Bolton.