A DOSE of reality has been injected into the always-lively body politic of Queensland with the rebound in support for the Newman Liberal National Party government.
After two by-election floggings, the polls showing Labor leading and Campbell Newman personally unpopular, the numbers had had the LNP facing defeat after scoring Australia’s biggest election win in 2012.
But it never seemed real.
Labor leader Annastacia Palaszczuk, with a team of just nine MPs in the 89-seat parliament, has done a good job taking the fight to the pugnacious premier without much in the way of policy.
She was helped by the former Brisbane mayor, who led the state as if he were still in city hall — bullying and berating those who opposed his government or its decisions.
Although a lot of voters didn’t like Newman personally — and it seems they still don’t — they haven’t quite forgotten the scandals and mistakes of the previous Labor governments that prompted them to flock to the LNP. QUEENSLAND NEWSPOLL
As Newman lost popularity, only a small percentage turned to Labor; most of the voters that deserted Newman were flirting with the likes of Clive Palmer.
Now, however, it seems Palmer’s own public brawls with his Chinese business partners and party colleagues is also turning people off.
Politically, Newman finally listened to the wake-up call.
The Premier stopped picking fights, overturned worrying changes to the anti-corruption watchdog and began promoting the successes of his government, including cutting the growth in public-sector spending from 9 per cent to 1 per cent.
Still, it seems voters are finding it hard to warm to Newman.
And that poses a larger problem for the LNP, with former Labor environment minister Kate Jones returning from the wilderness to contest Ashgrove, the seat she lost to the Premier.
While her local popularity is overstated and loaded with baggage — including support for asset sales and dumping dredge spoil in the Great Barrier Reef — Labor again will be able to raise doubts as to who would lead the LNP if Newman were to lose his seat.
