View the recording of this speech here
Record of Proceedings, 12 June 2025
What a pleasure to rise in this 58th Parliament to give the address-in-reply with such a full House. It is an honour and a privilege to be elected for the fifth time by the communities that I represent. Above everything else I need to say thank you to the electors of the Scenic Rim electorate for placing their faith in me to be their representative for this term of parliament. I reiterate my resolve to be the best representative I can be for not only those who voted for me but also those who voted against me because we are all Queenslanders, we are all Australians, and when you are elected to this place you take a job which requires you to represent sometimes people whom you do not agree with. You need to take that all in your role as a representative. Thank you to the electors of the Scenic Rim electorate.
I congratulate Mr Speaker on his elevation to the position of Speaker. It is an honour to hold that position in our system of democracy. I am sure you will do very well in that role. I am pleased to be serving the parliament as Deputy Speaker and to strengthen this institution of parliament through that role.
The role of Speaker and Deputy Speaker is vital to our democracy. I look forward in that role to guiding members of the House in the way in which it operates. I can assure members even at this juncture of the 58th Parliament that there are some who need more guidance than others, but it is something that I am relishing in that role.
I congratulate the Premier, David Crisafulli, and Deputy Premier, Jarrod Bleijie, for their successful campaign in the 2024 election. The 2024 election highlighted many issues in the Scenic Rim electorate that are the result of long-term neglect by Labor governments. We cannot forget that we have had Labor governments in this state for a very long time—too long for the people of the Scenic Rim electorate.
It it has been too long and too many people in parts of Queensland have been simply forgotten about by long-term Labor governments that serve only their sectional interests and forget about significant parts of the state that contribute so much to our economy and to our community. They have been neglected by Labor for far too long.
We are in a health crisis, something which has come about because of Labor’s neglect of the health system. We have had record ramping—the worst in the nation. It topped out at 45.5 per cent. That is something members opposite should hang their heads in shame about. It impacted access to hospitals across the electorate of Scenic Rim, such as the Ipswich Hospital, but also access to ambulances, because when ambulances are ramped in hospitals they cannot get out to people in the Scenic Rim electorate. That impacted people in the Beaudesert corridor and the Tamborine Mountain corridor as well.
The crime crisis, which has impacted so many families and their sense of security in their own homes and on the streets of our towns across the state, this government has already dealt with decisively by putting in place new laws to put the rights of victims and the community ahead of the rights of offenders and rebalance the scales of justice. Across their entire time in government, but particularly in the last term, we saw the waste of Labor. Queenslanders were getting less and paying more. There is a great example of that just outside the Scenic Rim electorate: a Main Roads project that is underway at the moment in the electorate of Logan. It was originally budgeted at $53 million but blew out under the stewardship of the former minister for Main Roads to $95 million. It was a huge blowout. Under Labor, you pay more and get less.
We saw the police crisis where members of the Police Service were leaving the service in droves because they knew they were not supported by the government. We saw the lack of investment and planning in our roads. I mentioned the Mount Lindesay Highway before, but many others were chronically underfunded by Labor over 30 of the past 35 years since the 1989 election. We saw the fire ant crisis with former minister Mark Furner, the friend of the fire ants. The member for Gympie and Minister for Primary Industries is taking that problem by the horns, as it were, and putting $24 million of extra state funding to the suppression effort around the fire ant zone in Queensland. The former government was content to let fire ants continue to multiply within the suppression zone.
We saw the energy crisis under the former Labor government. I have always had a very simple view when it comes to energy: affordable, reliable energy is what we need in Queensland and in Australia because it underpins the entire economy. We get it, but regrettably we are subject to the uber inflationary boondoggle policies of the Albanese federal Labor government that will no doubt send energy prices through the roof again and again. That impacts our farmers. It impacts our manufacturers. In fact, it impacts the entire economy. One of the main reasons we are seeing a cost-of-living crisis is the increased cost of energy over the past several years. The policies of the federal government will continue to see that occur.
We saw the planning crisis. In certain parts of the Scenic Rim electorate people are very worried about the densification of areas that really should not have a particular level of density because of their location, not only in respect of where they are in South-East Queensland but also because of environmental factors. We saw the advent of state facilitated development areas under the former government, which really amounted to nothing but an attempt by the state to take over planning powers. That really was a cause for concern because the Scenic Rim, for the most part, does not take in suburbs of Logan, Ipswich or the Gold Coast. We are a unique community with our own identities. Our planning policies, as determined by councils in consultation with the community, need to reflect that. The state policies regarding planning need to give power to local communities to make those decisions.
We talk about the Mount Lindesay Highway, the Cunningham Highway, the Boonah Beaudesert Road, the Canungra traffic issues and the Canungra water project and all the development that has gone on around there. Those are all infrastructure and planning issues that have been failed for so long, as has water for industry. All of those challenges will need to be taken up in this term of the parliament, but there is a new government that is determined to see business grow and that will enable development, from a residential point of view, in line with community aspirations in the Scenic Rim electorate. We have hardworking small businesses and farmers—some of the best in the nation. Finally, after almost 10 long years, we have a government that supports people in business and people who are willing to invest and have a go. It will be a long process to remedy all of the mistakes of the past Labor government, but it is one that we must embark upon.
I certainly look forward to seeing the budget of the Treasurer, David Janetzki, in a couple of weeks time as it will be a key milestone in the journey that began on 26 October last year. On 26 October last year, the people of Queensland decided to dispatch the former government, after all of their failures. The trust that has been placed in the LNP is something that, as a member of the government, I do not take lightly and I know my colleagues do not take it lightly either. It is a heavy responsibility we have been given but it is one that we are all extremely thankful for.
In this address-in-reply speech, I want to again thank the electors of the Scenic Rim electorate. I
reiterate some of the comments that I made in my maiden speech. In my maiden speech, I commented that we may not always agree on every issue, but you can rely on me to keep coming back and to persevere to try to get done the things that need to be done. I reiterate that today. I thank the LNP campaign supporters who contributed so much during the election campaign. While I will name some names, undoubtedly there will be people I do not name. I ask that they not be offended. There were so many. I especially acknowledge Ian Pocock, the Scenic Rim state electorate council chair, for all of the work that he has done over many years in support of our campaigns in Scenic Rim. I thank Gary Stubbs for his steadfastness. I thank Ross, David, David and Eva, Elizabeth, Duncan, Sheila, Josh, JB—he knows who he is—Josh, Chad, Mary, Glen, Bryan, Aaron, Jilanne, Robert and Ken.
To the federal member for Wright, Scott Buchholz: thank you for your support. As I have noted in this place many times before, when the coalition was in government, the investment that Scott, as the federal member for Wright, directed into the Scenic Rim electorate over many years has been enormous. It was instrumental—in fact, I would say definitive—in the decision for investment to be made, especially in the Mount Lindesay Highway.
I thank the staff of the Scenic Rim electorate office. We can all reflect on this: no election campaign is about just the election. Throughout the entire term work has to be done to ask people to support you again. As members, we are all supported by staff. From the bottom of my heart I thank Tim, Sheila, Rachel, Gary, Jane, Kristi and Drew for their work up until the 2024 election, especially Tim and Sheila who have been helping people in the Beaudesert electorate and the Scenic Rim electorate since 2013 and 2012 respectively. One of them resigned in 2013 but keeps coming to work every day. I do not know how that is going to end because she is such a good worker and keeps coming in, even though she resigned many years ago. I thank her very much for that service to me and to our community. Since the election, we have been joined by Poppy, Bridget and Emily. I thank them for their contributions so far in helping people in our community, who often contact our office for information about grants, information about federal issues and information about council issues. We point them in the right direction and make representations on their behalf as best as we can, wherever that may be.
I have always considered state MPs to be the best placed MPs in the entire system because we get inquiries about everything. We get inquiries about federal matters, about council matters and, of course, about state matters, so we as members and our offices need to learn a bit about all levels of Australian government. I see the member for Logan nodding in furious agreement. It is good that we can agree on that, member for Logan, because I know we have our disagreements sometimes. Be that as it may, I want to thank all of our staff for the work that they do. I thanked the Premier and his team earlier on in this address, but I just want to mention it again. The now Premier displayed a terrific and outstanding example of leadership during the 2024 campaign, and it started all the way back in 2020 when he assumed the leadership of the Liberal National Party. The Premier has an unbelievable appetite for work for all of Queensland and for all Queenslanders. I have not met anybody in my professional work life who has a work ethic like our Premier.
The focus on fixing matters of concern to Queenslanders and on holding people to account was relentless in opposition, and now we are delivering results on crime, on health, on housing and on stopping waste. I congratulate the Premier and his team for that successful campaign and for our progress in government so far.
I thank all of my family for their support. I thank my wife and our sons for their unwavering support in my role representing the electorate, in particular my wife. It is a large electorate with many different parts. A lot of time is spent on the road. It is a large electorate for South-East Queensland. I know there are much larger electorates in other parts of the state, but for SEQ it is a large electorate and it means not only a lot of time spent on the road across the electorate but also time spent in and out of Brisbane and across Queensland. I am well aware of the toll it takes on my wife and our boys. I have become much more aware of the toll my not being there has on my sons as they get older. My family shares in the service of Scenic Rim, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart.
To my brothers and parents-in-law: thank you for your support, which has been ongoing for many years. I wish to thank my parents for everything they have contributed to my campaigns over the years and their support over the course of my life. It is impossible to thank them enough. A lot of us could reflect on the incredible impact our parents and immediate family have when it comes to our reasons for being here, what it takes to become a candidate for political office and winning an election not just once but a couple of times. Many members would know my father passed away in March 2025. He was a thoughtful and considered man and a steadfast LNP supporter. He was also willing to criticise us when he thought things were going wrong. Over the years there were times he was very frustrated with the things that the coalition, the National Party or the Liberal Party did and he was willing to criticise them. His influence on my political outlook was enormous, but his greater influence overall was as a dad to his sons and as a grandfather to his grandchildren.
I have not spoken in this place of his passing in March 2025, but I do thank everyone for their kind thoughts at that time. In this address-in-reply and reflecting on the 2024 election, I wish to clearly place on record the respect and gratitude that I have, along with all of my family and Dad’s community, for his life. I say in this place: may Robert Arthur Krause OAM rest in peace.
: I have almost said everything that I want to say. In the time that I have remaining I just want to say thank you again to the Scenic Rim electorate. It is a huge honour for all of us to be in this place, but to be elected five times is very special to me. It is something we should never take for granted.
I, again, congratulate Mr Speaker on his elevation to that role. I am sure all members on the government benches will remember the 2024 election for all of the right reasons. It was a tremendous campaign—one that I think will be seen in the future as a turning point in Queensland’s history. With that, I commend the Governor’s opening address to the parliament. Thank you for the opportunity to say these few words in reflecting on the 2024 election.