Is Pumicestone’s Doolan x Crisafulli gamble paying off?

By Chase Christensen 

It has been 10 months since the Liberal-National Party was elected to parliament with a majority vote — the first time since Campbell Newman led the party to victory in 2012. 

After Annastacia Palaszczuk, Steven Miles and the Labor Party dominated the state for eight years, Queenslanders took a gamble by making their voices heard. They were tired of the government and decided it was time for the tide to turn by electing a David Crisafulli LNP Government. 

Pumicestone’s local Member of Parliament, 23-year-old Ariana Doolan, was elected as the youngest ever Queensland Government MP since Lawrence Springborg in 1989 (21-years-old). 

Tackling the youth crime agenda was at the top of the LNP’s to-do list. One of their first actions to combat the crisis was introducing the ‘adult crime, adult time’ law — the most highly promised policy by Mr Crisafulli. He made it plain and simple: he would reduce youth crime numbers if Queenslanders elected him. That is exactly what happened. Voters overwhelmingly supported a Coalition majority government and he acted immediately with the implementation of these laws. 

The laws targeted serious youth offenders. One key provision was giving courts the power to enforce life sentences on minors. During his October 2024 election campaign, the now premier pledged that if the number of crime victims did not decrease, he would resign during his four-year term. So far, things are looking promising. According to The Courier-Mail, the daily count of serious youth repeat offenders fell by 17.5% between December 2024 and May 2025. 

In the local area, Ms Doolan’s region is improving significantly. According to a Courier-Mail report, the daily count of serious youth offenders fell by 24.2% between December 2024 and May 2025. Stopping repeat youth offenders was one of the key goals of the ‘adult crime, adult time’ laws and it’s certainly paying off — offending rates continue to drop and early intervention strategies are beginning to show measurable impact across City of Moreton Bay and surrounding areas. 

Doolan marked the ‘adult crime, adult time’ laws as her proudest achievement so far in office. 

“Queenslanders can now access crime victim data faster than ever before,” Ms Doolan said. 

Moves have also been made in the health and infrastructure sectors as the government launched a series of health and emergency response initiatives. One of the main goals was to reduce the rate of ambulance ramping. A 4.6% decrease was recorded between January 2024 and January 2025 — before the annual budget was released in June, which featured a $1.7 billion commitment toward ramping reduction and a further $1 billion for paramedics and infrastructure. 

Ambulance ramping had previously been a major issue targeted by the Labor Party. However, since the release of these promising figures criticism from the opposition has noticeably quieted. 

Other notable achievements of the state government so far include the abolishment of stamp duty, the introduction of a 2% shared equity scheme and a $7.2 billion commitment to the Bruce Highway — in partnership with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. 

Pumicestone’s Ms Doolan highlighted the unique privilege of being the electorate’s voice in parliament. She also noted her role in “securing funding for vital infrastructure projects like Bribie Island Road, Bribie Bridge, Clayton Park upgrade at Beachmere and much more”. 

Ms Doolan stated that her goal for the near future and beyond was to “keep building on the important work of our Crisafulli Government and delivering positive outcomes for Pumicestone”.