Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the dust begins to settle, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the new Premier of Queensland, David Crisafulli, and his team on their successful campaign. Whilst we, at a federal level, would like to let our state colleagues do their thing, I'm looking forward to working collaboratively with the new team. I want to take this opportunity to recognise our state candidates and the wonderful job they did during their campaigns and celebrate with a couple but sadly commiserate with the others.

Close to home, it came down to a few hundred—or a bit over a thousand—votes in Macalister and Springwood. Susanna Damianopoulos and my brother, Rob van Manen, did exceptional jobs with their campaigns, but, sadly, they didn't quite get there. Jacob Heremaia ran in the seat of Waterford, and Mathew Owens ran in the seat of Logan. They both ran wonderful campaigns in very difficult seats. Matt got a nine per cent swing to him, and there was nearly a 13 per cent swing in Logan for Jacob, so it was a great result.

I congratulate Michael Crandon and Mark Boothman, in Coomera and Theodore, for winning overwhelmingly. I look forward to working with them again. I look forward to working with all state colleagues and congratulate again the new state government.