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Record of proceedings, 10 February 2026
Mr KRAUSE: I wholeheartedly support the bill brought by the Attorney-General, and I have a contribution to make in relation to that. Before I do, I want to touch on one of the points made by the member for McConnel when she referred to a report by Geoffrey Watson SC leading to the creation of the commission of inquiry into the CFMEU. The member for McConnel erroneously said that Geoffrey Watson was responsible for that commission of inquiry. That is incorrect.
The LNP Crisafulli government is responsible for that commission of inquiry that has come into being. It is exposing the shameful acts of economic vandalism by the CFMEU in this state-
Ms GRACE: Madam Deputy Speaker, I rise to a point of order on relevance. This is not contained in the bill.
Mr KRAUSE: On the point of order: I am responding to an assertion made by the member for McConnel.
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER (Dr O’Shea): If you could contain your remarks to the bill, that would be great, thank you.
Mr KRAUSE: Thank you for your guidance, Madam Deputy Speaker. The LNP government has put in place the commission of inquiry into the CFMEU. In coming back to the bill, this bill ends the Labor Party’s financial gerrymander on the Queensland electoral system. It was an electoral financial gerrymander put in place by the Labor Party which was not in compliance with the recommendations of the CCC’s Operation Belcarra report and which was started by reforms made with under 18 minutes’ notice in this very place. I was sitting up there. I watched it happen. With 18 minutes’ notice they changed the voting system.
Ms GRACE: Madam Deputy Speaker, I rise to a point of order on relevance in relation to the content in the bill.
Mr KRAUSE: On the point of order: I was referring to the ending of the financial gerrymander under this bill.
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER: I will allow that. You may continue.
Mr KRAUSE: Thank you. I think it is notable that there were no union submissions, as I understand, in relation to this bill.
Ms Grace: They were on holidays, mate.
Mr Nicholls: They are always on holidays. That’s the problem.
Mr KRAUSE: I take that interjection from the member for McConnel—they were on holidays. Yes, that is quite telling.
Ms Grace interjected.
Mr Nicholls interjected.
Mr KRAUSE: I hear the member for McConnel and the member for Clayfield interjecting across the chamber. It is quite illuminating. There were no union submissions.
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for McConnel and member for Clayfield, order! I would like to hear from the member for Scenic Rim.
Mr KRAUSE: If only I could call the member for McConnel to order from here. There were no union submissions. I wonder why that is. I think I know the answer, though: the union movement in Queensland understands that under the law as it is right now, and before it is amended by our honourable Attorney-General, it has a completely oversized influence on the electoral system of Queensland compared to every other sector of the Queensland economy. They do not want to talk about that. They do not want to raise their heads in this debate by putting in a submission because they have had such a good wicket under the stewardship of people like the member for McConnel and her comrades across the chamber. That is why they did not make a submission. It has nothing to do, member for McConnel, with the fact that, as you say, they were on holidays.
Ms GRACE: Madam Deputy Speaker, I rise to a point of order. I take offence and I ask that that be withdrawn. Please, could the member direct his comments through the chair.
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Scenic Rim, the member for McConnel has asked you to withdraw. Also, I remind you to address your comments through the chair and not directly to other members.
Mr KRAUSE: I withdraw. Thank you for your guidance, Madam Deputy Speaker. When it comes to the electoral laws of this state, I compare and contrast our approach with the approach of the Labor Party—18 minutes notice to change the voting system, no consultation-
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Scenic Rim, I think you have covered that area, if you could just go back to the bill. Thank you very much.
Mr KRAUSE: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I was just going to say that, in relation to the consultation for this bill, there were several weeks available for people to make submissions. This bill went to committee and people were able to make submissions. People were able to be questioned on their submissions and to raise issues. Many stakeholders did. Compare that to many of the reforms made by the former government in the dead of night, with zero notice. I and none of us on this side will not be lectured to by those opposite when it comes to transparency and consultation in this process. I referred previously to the Operation Belcarra report, which many members opposite have hung their hats on to say that the laws they implemented were justified. They were not. The decisions made to implement the financial gerrymander were decisions taken by the Labor Party to favour their union mates above every other sector in the economy and in the political system. In this bill we are levelling the playing field against those political decisions that were made by the ALP. This bill deals with a number of issues, but issues in relation to those I have been speaking about have obviously taken up considerable time in this debate. In relation to the issue of preselection ballots, the bill removes the ability for the Electoral Commission of Queensland to be involved in that process. There has been strong justification for that, because the affairs of political parties in most respects are matters that should be governed by those political parties themselves, in accordance with their constitutions and their by-laws-
Mr Nicholls: And longstanding judicial practice too, by the way.
Mr KRAUSE: Member for Clayfield, you have almost taken the thought out of my brain. There are always avenues for decisions of political parties in those processes to be challenged in the appropriate way. Should this place, the parliament of Queensland, as a public legislative body, be interfering in those affairs? I think many people will think not. There has been some overreach in the past and that has been reversed.
I have spoken about Belcarra a couple of times. This reverses the implementation of that law by the Labor Party which overreached the Operation Belcarra recommendations.
The other issue that is dealt with in this bill is voting restrictions on prisoners. I think out there in the community, especially at this point in time, when many people are suffering from the impacts—they have been for four, five or perhaps even more years—of crime in the community, the idea that people who are law-breakers influence those who become lawmakers is anathema to them. While there is always a question of reasonableness and where you draw the line when it comes to the ability of people who are incarcerated to vote, we are taking a stand on this and moving that line back to something which is more reasonable in the community interest. As our Attorney-General has said, the LNP believes that law-breakers should not get to elect our lawmakers. As I said at the start, I wholeheartedly support the bill. There has been a lot of focus on one particular aspect of it, and for good reason. That is because of the ill deeds of the former government over many years to implement a legal system that favours a particular part of the economy, a particular part of the industrial system—that is, the trade union movement—above all others. We are levelling the playing field with this bill and I give it my full support.