Mackay has chosen a LNP MP for the first time in more than 100 years as it grapples with a housing crisis like other regions. Picture: ANDREW KACIMAIWAI
Regional MPs and ministerial debutants are expected to dominate Queensland Premier-elect David Crisafulli’s Cabinet, according to media reports.
The new ministry will be formalised at a party room meeting this week.
The LNP’s win in Saturday’s state election brings the LNP’s time in opposition to an end after 10 years.
As of Monday morning, the LNP had 41.82 per cent of the vote (888,230) in first preference counting with Labor second on 32.71 per cent (694,763) and the Greens third with 9.45 per cent (200,580), just ahead of One Nation (8.04 per cent or 170,783).
Crisafulli and incoming Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie would be sworn into interim roles on Monday ahead of the fuller Cabinet being formalised.
Before the polls, the Opposition made its intention clear to keep its shadow portfolios the same in government.
“I’ve got a good and united team, and they have done a mighty job,” Crisafulli told ABC News last Thursday.
“I believe those people deserve the right to be ministers if government changes,” he added.
Most of the 19-member LNP Cabinet are likely to come from outside greater Brisbane compared to the four regional MPs in the Labor ministry.
On Sunday morning, Crisafulli said he would not discuss the make-up of his Cabinet until he had spoken to his new ministers personally.
He would not elaborate on any plans to expand the Cabinet.
Former Opposition leader Deb Frecklington, whose electorate of Nanango covers South Burnett (west of Brisbane), served as an assistant minister in Campbell Newman’s government from 2012-15.
She is tipped to get the gong as regional development minister.
Crisafulli hails from Far North Queensland and holds the Gold Coast seat of Broadwater.
Mackay Mayor Greg Williamson has been in politics for almost four decades after being elected as a council alderman in 1988.
“If Crisafulli is true to his word saying he’s going to actually increase the number of regional ministers … that’s something we would applaud,” he told ABC News Brisbane.
Mackay was won by the LNP for the first time in more than a century amid a pressing need for housing, workers and services.
