In 1976 I had the growing desire to start my own company, to walk into a room where everyone paid attention to me, to be a millionaire by the time I was 30 and retired on my superyacht by my 40th. A grand plan, but sitting in the erratic weather patterns of Melbourne working for the government shipping line, ANL, I spent months pondering where to start my empire. As my job involved interstate travel to most main ports, I did walk the ground and carefully weighed up the alternatives.

I concluded that Western Australia and Queensland were the best options and both states had a population of just over one million.

Queensland however, had recently elected a bold leader Joh Bjelke-Petersen, a relatively uneducated man that left school at 13 when his father died, to work on the family farm. This visionary mover and shaker Premier had just abolished death duties, was confronting the unions, and there were early signs that he would make his state rock and roll and for 19 years he did just that!

He was the deciding choice for me, so I headed north on my old yacht and set up at Main Beach on the Gold Coast where they were talking about building a marina next to the Southport Yacht Club, a male-only domain.

The first order of business was to get women into the yacht club, and along with some friends, we upset the Commodore and his wingmen by changing the rules.

South-East Queensland at that time was a great place to start my business, and I had the privilege of meeting that outstanding Premier at a ‘free breakfast’ small gathering three years into my venture, where he addressed 15 of us as the ‘future of Queensland’. I thought at the time how could he possibly know what I was doing? Nevertheless, as an apolitical workaholic, I became an immediate convert to the National Party.

I met Joh on other occasions, the last time just one-on-one, which I considered a real privilege.

Fifty years on from the start, I am still here, having stumbled a couple of times, and even had a distraction to my business with a crack at state politics in 2015. This resulted in me being soundly thrashed by Labor and the Greens, as I was promoting evil and nasty policies such as a Gold Coast Cruise terminal, elimination of payroll tax, and cutting red, green, and black tape for small and medium businesses.

But Joh was right in his early prediction, and our Queensland company did prosper with customers in 47 countries and achieving 10 international awards.

Western Australia and Queensland, like their AFL teams, are still the Nation’s best options, and despite having recently lost $200 backing the Fremantle Dockers while my jaw dropped watching Wharfie Time being called too early, they allowed me back into WA last week. The state, especially the shipbuilding and maritime activities around Henderson, Kwinana, and Garden Island is rocking and rolling, and good on them and not bad for a Labor State!

Queensland on the other hand has its S&P credit rating dropped, is imitating Labor Lite predecessors and urgently needs a bold leader as it doesn’t have one.

Having investigated the possibility of creating a younger clone of Stuart Ballantyne, a smart aleck but now with the experience of 10 burnt fingers (but never the same one twice), what would I do if I was the Premier of Queensland?

Well, that’s easy, just focus on what you have got, not what you don’t have. Copy successful countries with a dose of boldness!

In order of our inherent wealth and geography, let’s prioritise the action plan on a clean sheet basis, starting with tackling our expensive energy. It is urgent that I, on behalf of Queensland, boldly and immediately action:

Lifting bans on nuclear and like successful Finland, organise cheap power for the whole state, and attract manufacturing and ease the power cost burden for all Queenslanders

Immediately repeal the Sustainable Ports Act 2015 as should have been done two years ago. This Act represents a 630-page economic handbrake on North Queensland.

Concurrently, start to install roll-on roll-off ship ramps every 150 kms from the border near Coolangatta to Lockhart River to get the trucks off the road and emulate the successful European Motorways of the Sea (MOS) which saw truck 60 per cent of the truck traffic off the roads within two years. The first 20 per cent of the $9 billion earmarked for the Bruce Highway upgrade should be redirected to this blue highway initiative. Trucks using this blue highway will seriously reduce Queensland’s 316 annual road deaths and 5,000 serious accidents, as well as reducing road repairs, congestion and pollution. This is a no-brainer bold plan!

Repeal 75 per cent of regulations on state-wide dredging and authorise the start the Karumba to Port Augusta ‘Bjelke-Petersen’ canal, in co-operation with the bold leadership SA government, to access the $3 trillion dollars’ worth of minerals languishing under our feet.

Surely if the highly successful 2104 km European Rhine-Main-Danube canal, only completed in 1992, can be constructed up to a height of 406 metres above sea level, our world-leading Australian expertise in moving dirt can easily do a 1,700 km canal to a maximum height of 266 metres above sea level? Piece of cake!

Cancel any treaties, agreements, or activity remotely connected with Net Zero, the Paris agreement.

Cancel payroll tax and any other anti- employment disincentives to allow growth of small businesses

Cancel immigration from high-risk nations, and repatriate all the weepy bedwetting malcontents who don’t like us or our state.

Re-introduce Kingswood Country and other classic comedies on TV to restore our sense of humor and eliminate thin-skinned offence from our vocabulary and behaviour.

Bold and effective leadership is about convincing people to do what they don’t want to do, and trying to appease everyone will result in failure.

Embracing these few activities will keep me busy the first week and make people aware that Queensland is once again rock and rolling, and a great place to start your company, enjoy your work, your family and your great state under strong and bold leadership!

Stuart Ballantyne worked closely with Deployable Energy in getting International Classification Society approvals for Micro modular reactors into his ship designs. Deployable Energy had to leave Queensland three years ago due to the anti-nuclear sentiment by the federal and Queensland state governments, and recently achieved criticality for their MMR at the Idaho Nuclear Laboratory resulting in their production facility in Houston having a full order book. A disgraceful loss for Queensland and Australia