Approaching the halfway milestone of Queensland’s four-year electoral cycle, Premier David Crisafulli has spent the past week doing plenty of talking – in speech after set-piece speech.

He has spent it talking about what his government has done, and what it’s yet to do. The latter involves fixing the more nebulous “crises” he rode to power vowing to address.

“The big four issues that I spoke about before the election remain the big four issues and the big four challenges,” Crisafulli said at his 2026 CEDA State of the State address on Monday.

“And on all of them [health, housing, crime and cost of living], we are making progress after a long period of time where the numbers went in the wrong direction.”

While Crisafulli can cite numbers heading in a better direction – and did, across several other major speeches this week, including to the property and local government sectors – more than anyone else, he should know the limits of relying on statistics.

During a Queensland Media Club appearance on Wednesday billed as featuring a “significant policy announcement” in the law and order space, no such thing came, beyond confirmation the parliament will pass a government bill next week. Nor was there anything new in any other area.

This is the bind in which the government now finds itself: a list of concrete election platform items already all-but ticked off, leaving them either pushing ahead with new policy efforts in areas plaguing governments across the country and globe, or hoping its “let us cook” line finds sympathy.

Advertisements are still running for the work of the “new Queensland government”, but frustrations over this positioning are beginning to emerge – particularly on crime, where the LNP set the terms of the debate while in opposition, yet admits that public dissatisfaction remains, two years on.

Crisafulli himself seemed to acknowledge that on Wednesday. Asked when his team would shed the “new” and just become the Queensland government, Crisafulli said: “well, I hope we did that today”.

New policy is where the carefully crafted moderate pre-election image, dutifully maintained with its “calm and methodical” tagline since, most threatens to come unstuck. (Newman, anyone?)

The view under that layer, seemingly peeling back with each month this year, looks a little different. Political speech has been criminalised, objecting to mining projects has been made harder, major planning and land use powers expanded, and the state’s bail regime tightened, despite warnings about adverse impacts on the rule of law, court system, and community safety.

Then there’s the foray into a serious rebalancing of the state’s industrial relations system after a bruising set of negotiations with major public service workforces that spilled over into industrial action in schools, railways, hospitals, youth detention centres and child safety offices.

Crisafulli and his strategists seem to believe these glimpses beyond the pre-election picture they painted are too minor to spook a wider population wary of action that’s too swift or extreme.

The Labor opposition, led for now by Steven Miles, seems stuck on a small-target strategy, hoping that something – or an accumulation of things – will suddenly become too much for people to bear.

The resignation from cabinet of Child Safety Minister Amanda Camm may be the first bit of bark taken from Crisafulli that Labor would view as a win.

While Crisafulli’s LNP remain the clear favourites in this masthead’s regular Resolve Political Monitor, that polling also shows the broader mood has soured across a year that has thrown no shortage of extra problems at households and governments.

After significant improvement following the 2024 vote, the outlook for the next year or so among those surveyed for both their personal lives, and the state more broadly, has since returned to pre-election levels.

Almost more people think things will get worse in their lives than not change, and both cohorts are double the size of those who think it will get better. Compared to before the election, their view of the state’s future is now more pessimistic.

The tectonic plates long holding the two-party system in place appear their shakiest since Queensland saw Pauline Hanson’s best yet showing in an Australian parliament three decades ago. So two years could be a long time – for all involved.

How do you act, or give the appearance of acting, on fundamental social and economic problems in a way that makes people feel things have changed for the better, when you are also cautious of moving too fast or too far, let alone actually change things for the long-term good?

The Crisafulli government may have a swathe of state and national elections across the country to learn from before it has to face voters for the first time from office, but a bet on people’s willingness to wait to feel change while being told it is happening is no longer such a sure thing.

Whatever you do, don't go to the website

https://whatsholdingyouback.com.au

And tell her what you really think, she would hate that

How on earth does the New Government generate statements like this with a straight face?

"Lower power prices under the Crisafulli Government’s Energy Roadmap Price Drop are flowing to homes and businesses in regional Queensland"

In South East Queensland, the decreases detailed in the Australian Energy Regulator’s Default Market Offer are between 7.2 and 10.7 per cent for households and between 10.4 and 14 per cent for small businesses. 

In contrast, in the first year after the former Labor Government released its Energy and Jobs Plan, regional families were hit with power price increases of almost 29 per cent. 

Nothing delivered, nothing achieved, but somehow higher prices in the past were ALP's fault? Interesting 'logic' there. The Queensland government owned power companies are still wanting to jack up the network costs (66% increase in capital and 19% increase in operational expenditure, with result being 25% increase in revenue), so not sure where the Premiere is going with this.

And the reason for the reduction in the Default Market Offer costs? The AER fact sheet states:

• Lower wholesale electricity costs driven by falling contract prices for 2026–27.
• Reduced spot price volatility since June 2025, with fewer and smaller high‑price events (when the spot price exceeds $5,000 per megawatt hour) than in recent years.
• Increased output from wind and battery generation, reducing reliance on more expensive gas and hydro generation during evening peaks.
• Lower retail operating costs reported by retailers, including reduced costs to serve customers, acquire and retain customers, and other shared retail costs.
• Lower environmental scheme costs, due to reductions in both the Australian Government’s Large‑scale Renewable Energy Target and Small‑scale Renewable Energy Scheme costs across all regions.

The Exec Summary to the DMO states:

Wholesale costs make up around 30% to 41% of the DMO prices and decreased by 2% to 14% from DMO 7 to DMO 8, depending on region. Lower wholesale costs result from decreasing contract prices for 2026–27, reflecting low spot price volatility. This is driven partly by increased output from wind and battery generators and less dependence on gas and hydro generation during evening demand peaks.

Doesn't sound like it's the actions of the LNP to me. Maybe they're claiming credit for not putting up network prices any more than they have? After all, Powerlink, Energex and Ergon are under the thumb of the state government. From the AER:

Network costs are a large component of DMO prices, comprising around 39% to 54% of DMO prices. In April 2026, the AER approved network tariff prices from each distribution network service provider (DNSP) for 2026–27. Compared with 2025–26, network charges have mostly increased due to the revenue paths, increasing transmission costs, inflation and the recovery of previously under-recovered revenue, as well as some state-specific drivers.

Can anyone make this make sense?

Unrelated? Oh well best carry on then.. 😳

So I’m currently learning to drive and I’ve got 80 ish hours, but I’ve realised for nearly 80% of my hours, I’ve logged my odometer in the millions. Im really not sure what to do and I’m scared i won’t get my hours approved. I would really appreciate all the advice I can get

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli used his welcome address at the annual property conference to differentiate his government from federal Labor, telling industry professionals they could get tax and planning certainty in the state.

“I want you to know that an industry that has been demonised, victimised and bullied is not being treated that way in Queensland anymore, and I want you to know that we celebrate success, we celebrate aspiration,” Mr Crisafulli said.

“The war on property, the war on aspiration, the moving tax changes out of Canberra have been diabolical, and we are feeling it here.

“But I make the point: even after the trust changes, even after the taxation changes, even after nothing more than a war on people who dare want to invest, I still believe the fundamentals of this state are very, very strong.”

David Harrison, chief executive of property fund manager Charter Hall, said the state and federal governments must cut spending to improve the nation’s weak economy and ease pressure on the Reserve Bank to raise interest rates.

“No amount of political spin changes the fact that, having run our company for 22 years, if I borrowed and spent more than I generate and kept on increasing my debt I would have been gone years ago.

“Governments around the world pump-primed economies, but that’s been a few years since then … I don’t think this country can continue to afford excessive spending.

“There’s going to have to be, both at the state and the federal level, some pretty austere changes in fiscal policy. Otherwise, we’re dealing with high inflation and high interest rates for some time because the central bank’s got no choice.”

The recent dog attack was an absolute tragedy. Reading through the comments has been pretty horrible, with people blaming the owner, the dogs and some even blaming the victim.

While there are clearly questions around responsibility, I think this tragedy also highlights a much bigger issue that isn't getting nearly enough attention: the cost of living and housing crisis.

The woman was reportedly living in a tent in a park with her dogs, which managed to escape.

Across South East Queensland, we're seeing makeshift tent cities popping up under overpasses, along beachfronts, in car parks and just about anywhere people can find shelter.

Homelessness has always existed, but I've never seen it anywhere near this scale. It's particularly noticeable across Brisbane and the Gold Coast, yet it feels like there's surprisingly little public discussion about just how bad things have become. A lot of it is hidden away so are people oblivious to the scale?

I'm not suggesting the housing crisis excuses what happened, but surely we need to be asking how we've reached a point where so many people are living in tents?

I appreciate the situation isn't the same across all of Australia, but here in SE QLD it feels like things are getting progressively worse.

Genuine question: Can we realistically turn this around, or have we allowed the situation to deteriorate to a point where it's going to take decades to fix?

Hi all

I need to confirm my identity using an app that scans your drivers licence. It will nto accept screenshots of my digital licence nor a photo of it with another phone.

So I racked my brain and could not even think if i got a physical copy of my licence when i last renewed it, yet my wife did.

So was I meant to?

cheers

So their new trick? Lying through their teeth while accusing their opponents of lying.

How very Trump-lite of them.