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Eight months on from their electoral victory in October, the Queensland Liberal government have wasted no time in viciously pursuing their right-wing agenda. They’ve attacked trans rights, Indigenous rights, and public sector workers while continuing to expand police funding and powers. But there has also been resistance from workers and students that will need to grow in the face of further attacks.
Their trademark “Adult Time, Adult Crime” policy has begun to be implemented with disastrous impacts on young, predominantly Indigenous, people. These laws have been rightly condemned by the United Nations for their breach of the most basic child rights. A fact even the LNP acknowledged in their own human rights assessment, stating the laws would limit children’s “protection from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” and would “have a greater impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children”. Of course, this did not prevent them from being passed. Police data shows they’ve made over 4,200 arrests and 18,000 charges against children in the first quarter of 2025 alone. These kids are now, according to a recent Lancet study, 4.2 times more likely to die early due to their contact with the Queensland ‘justice’ system. With nothing else to offer people, the LNP have used these children as a political football to deflect from their inaction on the cost of living and housing crises.
The LNP’s first budget clearly reveals their priorities for Queensland, with no meaningful cost-of-living relief provided at all. Still haunted by the spectre of hated former Liberal Premier, Campbell Newman, who slashed tens of thousands of public sector jobs when the LNP was last in office, Crisafulli posed this as a “no austerity” budget. If that’s the case, it’ll be a grim affair when they decide austerity is on the menu.
Public sector workers like nurses, teachers, and firefighters have been offered a derisory pay increase of 8% over three years. This below-inflation pay increase further eats away at workers’ purchasing power as people struggle to make ends meet. Nor did they provide cost-of-living relief in any meaningful sense. They will only provide small payments ($100-200) to families with children – crumbs to a small section of the population, while the rising cost of rents and groceries far outstrips wages.
Addressing the housing crisis continues to be a low priority. With 52,000 people (and growing) on the social housing waitlist, the LNP has committed to building only 53,500 new social and community homes by 2044. So, it could be 20 years before a house is allocated to someone. With such abysmal relief offered, you’d think there’s no money available. But that’s only if you’re a worker or student. There’s still over $7 billion free to build the Victoria Park Olympic stadium, which is widely opposed by a long-term community campaign. It will demolish green space in the inner city and be built on an Indigenous heritage site. Close to $3 billion is allocated to build more prisons, upgrade police stations and equipment. Paired with the new crime laws, this amounts to rewarding the police for their brutality towards overwhelmingly poor, homeless and Indigenous people in Queensland.
Fortunately, these attacks have not been left unopposed. Indigenous activists and their supporters have rallied against the youth crime laws and the desire of some Liberal politicians to recriminalise public drunkenness. There have also been protests of hundreds in support of trans rights earlier in the year to oppose the government’s decision to ban new patients under 18 from accessing gender affirming healthcare.
More recently, workers have begun to fight back. The Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union has refused their terrible pay offer and overwhelmingly voted in support of strike action. Similarly, the Queensland Teachers Union organised a protest on 24 June against their pay offer. Hopefully, they’ll follow suit in voting for strike action to put pressure on the LNP government and demand a significant pay increase.
These actions are all incredibly important, as we cannot rely on the official opposition of the Labor Party. Not only did they support the new youth crime laws, but when in power, also suspended the Human Rights Act to lock up more Indigenous children. It’ll only be ordinary people organising and fighting back on the streets and in their workplaces that will challenge all the attacks from the Crisafulli government.
Written by Fletcher Hood Withey
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