Wed, 24 Jun 2026 07:12:18 +1000WeeblyTue, 24 Sep 2024 21:14:30 GMThttp://www.stevebishop.net/courier-mail-lnp-mps-are-lazy-incompetent-layabouts/courier-mail-lnp-mps-are-lazy-incompetent-layaboutsThe Courier-Mail will be grossly hypocritical if it urges Queenslanders to vote for the LNP next month, as it has in past elections.

The newspaper has described leader David Crisafulli and his shadow ministers as "a bunch of lazy, incompetent and irrelevant members".

The full, scathing assessment of current long-term LNP MPs is:

"From frontbench to backbench the LNP is beset by a bunch of lazy, incompetent and irrelevant members who are clueless about the hard work required to beat Labor at a Queensland election."

Not only that but it has labelled them as "arrogant" and a "bunch of losers"

But there's more. According to The Courier-Mail "many of the layabout bench-warmers left in safe seats...aren't willing to get off their rear ends."

And: "...a modest army of mostly greying old men in greying old suits, a group so homogenous that it's difficult to distinguish one from another."

And: "On the Gold Coast the party's older MPs spend their time at the track posting instagram selfies and and lamenting about what might have been"

The Courier-Mail is not alone in making a devastating judgement about the LNP.

Former Queensland LNP Premier Campbell Newman told 4BC listeners in April this year the "arrogant" LNP, which still comprises 11 of his former ministers and assistant ministers, is "not fit for government".

And he should know - he and those 11 ministers were so unfit for government they were kicked out in 2015 in a record 14-point two-party swing.

During the interview he said: "...a number of my ministers were allowed their head. They were allowed to put forward things and...they weren't particularly good policies."

And he accused the current Crisafulli-led LNP of "poor judgement" and being "really out of step with reality".

On Sky News Newman said Mr Crisafulli had indulged in "soft soap and evasion" for the last two years and asked "What do they really stand for?"

Is The Courier-Mail correct when it accuses LNP MPs of being "lazy, incompetent and irrelevant"?

Only two shadow ministers issued media releases in the three months between June 13 this year (when an LNP website containing media statements  started) and September 13.

Fifteen shadow and assistant shadow ministers did not make any announcements about what they are planning for their portfolios.

One of them is Shadow Energy Minister Deb Frecklington who had nothing to say about LNP plans regarding electricity prices, solar power, wind power or opposing the Dutton plan for multi-billion dollar nuclear power stations..

Another is former Treasurer Tim Nicholls, the man who sacked 1800 nurses and midwives during the Newman Government's tenure.

Even his former boss, Campbell Newman, has ridiculed him, saying on X: "If Tim Nicholls  had no role in the policies of my govt (yeh right !) what are his policies now and how do they differ ?"

According to the official LNP website there were six releases about housing by Mr Crisafulli without any input from home ownership shadow minister David Janetski or housing shadow Minister Tim Mander - neither of whom issued a single release.

Mr Crisafulli was also responsible for releases on community safety, adult crime, youth crime, health and Callide Power Station, with relevant shadow ministers Jim McDonald, Laura Gerber, Tim Nicholls, Ros Bates and Deb Frecklington playing no roles in the announcements.

At the last election in 2020 The Courier-Mail was hypocritical in advising its readers on polling day to vote for the LNP.

Three days later readers would have realised they had been duped when the newspaper revealed the overwhelming and comprehensive criticism of the LNP contained in this article.

It had been hypocritical in deliberately hiding the truth from its readers.

The Courier-Mail has a history of urging readers to vote for the LNP at elections or not to vote Labor.

It urged readers to vote for the LNP in 2017, It warned them in the 2015 election that: "The big danger for Queensland today is that the ALP will be propelled to victory on a protest vote.

Its sister paper, the Sunday Mail advised its readers: "LNP best choice to move state forward".

"They don't deserve to win," says Campbell Newman about next month's election.

Surely, The Courier-Mail cannot be grossly hypocritical this time around.]]>