Deb Frecklington to lead LNP, Tim Mander deputy

Deb Frecklington says her party needs to regain the faith of Queenslanders after two consecutive election losses.

The LNP has elected Deb Frecklington to lead the party. Picture: Stewart McLean

New Queensland Opposition leader Deb Frecklington says the Liberal National Party will need to regain the faith of Queenslanders after suffering two consecutive election losses in the state.

Third-term MP Ms Frecklington was this afternoon elected as the LNP’s first female leader, with former Newman government Housing Minister Tim Mander picked as her deputy.

In their first press conference, Ms Frecklington – who served as former Opposition leader Tim Nicholls’ deputy – acknowledged the party had made mistakes during the recent election campaign but would not say what they were.

“What we need to do ... obviously it was a hard-fought campaign,” she said.

“I do want to say one thing though. (Labor Premier) Annastacia Palaszczuk is now going to have to run on her own record, she won’t be able to run on fear, smear, because she has a new team to deal with (in the LNP). So, she’s going to have to run on her own record. And that’s a challenge for Annastacia Palaszczuk.”

Mr Nicholls was attacked by Labor during the campaign for being one-term LNP Premier Campbell Newman’s Treasurer. While both Ms Frecklington and Mr Mander were elected as part of the Newman government in 2012, Ms Frecklington did not serve in his Cabinet, but rather as Assistant Minister to both Mr Newman and Mr Nicholls outside the Cabinet. Mr Mander was appointed Housing Minister part-way through the Newman government’s term.

Today, Ms Frecklington said the new leadership team represented a necessary “reset” for the party, and a distancing from the Newman years.

“That’s why I put my hand up for leadership of this great party, because we are able to reset the button, draw a line in the sand,” she said.

“This is a revived, revitalised new party and I’m looking forward to leading it.”

She did not directly answer a question about whether the LNP would reconsider its opposition to privatisation, and whether it would review its whole policy platform.

“I think the people of Queensland have spoken, we’ve lost an election, we know we’ve made some mistakes, and that is what both Tim Mander and myself and our whole team, the whole LNP team, will be getting together in the coming days, we’ll be discussing many things over the coming months,” Ms Frecklington said.

“We’ve got two years and 10 months to take on this Labor Party.”

The Australian understands there was only one round of voting for the leader. Lawyer, farmer and mother-of-three Ms Frecklington secured more than a majority with 25 votes, one-time leader John-Paul Langbroek received the backing of 10 MPs, fourth-term ultra conservative MP Mark Robinson received three votes, and there was one informal vote.

In the race for deputy, Mr Mander was overwhelmingly elected 37 votes to outspoken north Queensland MP Jason Costigan’s two votes.