A thick-skinned intruder has gatecrashed proceedings as Queensland’s opposition leader sharpened his youth crime pitch ahead of polling day.
Accused of being a policy chameleon, Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli stared down an actual reptile while flanked by victims of crime on Wednesday.
Mr Crisafulli tried to maintain his composure as he confirmed he would make weapon search powers for police – dubbed “Jack’s Law” – permanent if elected.
The law was ushered in after Gold Coast teen Jack Beasley was fatally stabbed on a night out and has been expanded to allow police to search for knives in “high-risk” areas like sporting precincts, bars, shopping centres and public transport.
Its success has prompted NSW to introduce similar legislation, with Tasmania and Victoria considering whether to join Western Australia in following suit.
“Those laws are working. It’s detected over 1000 weapons since it came in,” Mr Crisafulli said ahead of Saturday’s poll.
“My grave concern is, if a minority Labor government was re-elected with the Greens, that is one of the things that would be on the chopping block and we are not prepared to allow that to occur.”
Premier Steven Miles slammed the opposition leader’s “bizarre” claim, saying Labor made Jack’s Law permanent with a review period.
“We are proud of this one, it’s a Labor law,” he told reporters in Rockhampton.
“It’s frankly a bit bizarre that they are on the … third-last day of the campaign announcing they will keep a law that we introduced and is working.”
Mr Crisafulli’s mood quickly changed when the curious reptile emerged and began approaching his lectern, startling a plain-clothed police officer tasked with shadowing the LNP leader.
The officer eventually stepped in to ward off the intruder, much to the relief of Mr Crisafulli’s colleagues and anxious media.
It gave the LNP leader a chance to turn the tables on the reporters who had hounded him all campaign about his abortion stance, an issue finally cleared up in Tuesday night’s third and final debate.
“My turn to ask the questions – are you scared of lizards?” he laughed.
The reptile still hung around, appearing to listen intently to how Mr Crisafulli thought he fared in the debate.
He again made youth crime a focus in the face-off with the premier, pointing to recent victim numbers.
“There are 289,657 victims of crime in Queensland in the last 12 months – that is more than Victoria and NSW despite their populations being much larger than ours,” he said.
The Brisbane 2032 Olympics was another hot-button issue, with Mr Crisafulli accusing Mr Miles of “stuffing up” planning and claiming people were embarrassed.
But it was abortion that dominated when the leaders went head-to-head in front of 100 undecided voters, with Mr Crisafulli finally giving a straight answer on his stance after being asked more than 130 times during the campaign.
“Yes or no answer – do you believe in a woman’s right to choose,” Mr Miles asked.
Mr Crisafulli quickly responded: “Yes – oh, that got you didn’t it?”
The premier on Wednesday said it was another example of the opposition leader changing his spots.
Abortion was decriminalised in 2018 but at the time, Mr Crisafulli voted against the reform.
“I can’t think of a single time that a candidate, let alone a leader, three days before an election changes such a fundamental belief,” Mr Miles said.
“How do you go from staunchly pro-life to suddenly pro-choice just a few days before the election?”
