Premier drops public service speech on LNP donor cash access day
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has dropped a planned keynote speech at a 'building a better public service' summit, but has scheduled time to attend a party event giving LNP donors access to cabinet ministers.
Crisafulli had been billed to give the major speech at the day-long summit in Brisbane held by public sector news outlet The Mandarin, a slot now taken by assistant minister Trevor Watts.
The premier, and other cabinet ministers, will instead spend time meeting with LNP donors who have paid the party to take part in its Corporate Observers program, also in Brisbane on Thursday.
Why it matters
The decision by Crisafulli comes amid growing criticisms of his new government's relationship with the public service, despite campaigning on a platform to 'empower' the sector.
Cash-for-access events from the major parties have long been sources of controversy.
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Former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk scrapped – then resumed – support for Labor's version during the last term.
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Ms Ley will take centre stage when she addresses the convention on Friday after calling for colleagues to win back the trust of Australian women. Mr Springborg's legacy will loom large at the convention, where more than 150 resolutions are set to be debated. He has been party president since 2021. But his impact has spanned decades, highlighted by his instrumental role in merging the parties and creating the LNP in 2008. Mr Springborg will walk away having achieved something unprecedented, QUT Adjunct Associate Professor John Mickel said. "Some 17 years on (LNP) has not only endured but it has prospered," Prof Mickel told AAP. "He has helped formulate a merged identity that nobody else was able to pull off." The Queensland-based LNP has savoured local, state and federal success since its inception. It has dominated Australia's biggest council - Brisbane City - for 20 years, while David Crisafulli ended Labor's nine-year reign at the 2024 state election. 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Albanese borrowed this immigration trick from the Democrats: Now Labor's on track to stay in power for decades
If you want a vision of the future, imagine Anthony Albanese doing Welcome to Country on your television screen, forever. And don't just imagine it – get ready for it, because that's a vision that could become very real. How? This week, a not-so-secret secret was revealed in the outer reaches of an online debate that the mainstream media missed. Kos Samaras, a director at Labor-friendly polling firm RedBridge, lobbed a startling statistic into the immigration debate. And in this statistic lies Labor's path to power. Not just for years, for decades. "85 per cent of the Indian diaspora voted for the Labor party in the last election," he said. 'Largely, I believe, for sectarian reasons.' Now, you've probably noticed that Labor in recent years has gone from being the party for the working class, into the party for everyone-but-the-working class. Somewhat masterfully, they've built a coalition of inner-city professionals, students, and new migrants. 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This is a page right out of the Democrats' playbook. Remember: the Democrats under Joe Biden brought in tens of millions migrants through America's southern border. And if you want to see how that turns out, look at places like California or New York. Today, they are in effect permanent one-party Democrat-run states. It was only by sheer force of will that President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement were able to avoid the same fate for America. They saw what was coming and called it out, rallying the tens of millions of disaffected Americans who weren't ready to have their country stolen. Is Albo, like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, dreamin' of Australia's Californication? Based on these numbers, it certainly looks like it. Labor has learned that today's democracy is no longer a battle of ideas. It's a numbers game. And right now Labor is winning. It's time the Liberal Party realised what time it is. They're not going to find their numbers by chasing the exact same blocs that Labor are: the inner-city professionals, students, and new migrants. No, the Coalition is going to find their numbers the same way Trump did. In the millions of disaffected people pushed out and forgotten by Labor. The ones who have to pay higher rents, higher house prices, and higher energy bills. The ones stuck in traffic, watching their country get stolen from under them while Labor chases votes. Liberal Party, if you're listening. If Labor is going full-Democrats. Maybe it's time you went Trump-mode. And if Sussan Ley can't, then find someone who can. ***** Last year I did some digging and found that of the top 20 state electorates for foreign born percentage in New South Wales, 16 voted Labor. And as Freelancer CEO Matt Barrie pointed out recently, some state Labor governments have already begun building high density housing in key Liberal seats. His idea is this: more affordable apartments means more migrants, more migrants means more Labor votes, more Labor votes means more Labor seats, and so on. Naturally the Liberal Party thinks it can win the migrant vote, given that so many of them come from socially conservative countries. Yet study after study, report after report shows this isn't the case: the Brookings Institute found that migrants often live right, but vote left. Jordan Knight is a journalist and marketing professional. He is the founder of Migration Watch Australia – an organisation campaigning for lower immigration .
