There is much in what you say Graham!
A recent post Redcliffe poll saw a slide to labor of around 14%, indicating that the 17% swing against the Government, in the Redcliffe by election, was no one off fluke!
The LNP, on those numbers, could lose around 39 seats and Campbell could even lose his own seat?
A charismatic ALP leader, would swing more of the undecided towards Labor?
More dithering, playing the law and order card, or any more talk of privatization won't assist the LNP, nor will attacking doctors or their hard won conditions!
C'mon, we expect these blokes to work 60-70 hours straight on occasions, something no far better paid, and demonstrably less useful pollie, would ever countenance or accept for themselves!?
Nor will the Keystone cops attack on ordinary law abiding Bikies.
And the austerity measures are not going down too well, and not helped by the proposed 40% pay rise for patently self serving pollies, soon after Campbell got into office?
When in fact the first order of business ought to have been the construction of flood mitigation dams, by the dozen if necessary!
Given these same dams will also provide more water surety for drought stricken farmers, and in so doing provide a reasonable return, they could have been considered an income earning investment, funded off budget?
And something most Queenslanders, with flood affected friends or family, would have quietly agreed with? The extra regional jobs wouldn't have hurt either!
Nothing concentrates the minds of all pollies on both sides of the political divide, more than one term governments!
Rhrosty.

I think the key here is Australians tend to vote governments out rather then in.

Can't disagree with your observations, Graham.

Notwithstanding, there is no mention of what influence the performance of the federal political parties could play in the next Qld election. Even at this early stage, your view of this would be interesting

Labor left Queensland in major need of fixing up in all sorts of ways. The people booted them out of office with great gusto!

The Newman government has tried to do the fix-up job, but basically gets all manner of criticism:

Too much too quickly. Not attending to the right things. Sure we don’t want criminal bikies in our midst and yes our government should deal with it decisively, but no, they’re doing it all wrong and they’re violating our basic rights and liberties!

You’ve got to wonder: does any government really have a hope in hell of implementing the necessary reforms without incurring a huge backlash and getting kicked out after one or two terms?

Any sensible government would examine this very closely and presumably come to the conclusion that the best thing to do is to be seen to be moving in the right direction on the multitude of things that need reform, but to tread very carefully indeed, which would mean not achieving anything of any significance!

End result; the people of Queensland won’t let a proactive government remain significantly proactive. They’ll make sure that we have a second-rate government, and that the various gross inefficiencies, poor rule of law, constant population growth pressure in SEQ, and lack of future planning will continue, ad-nauseum.

No one who really compared the Newman government to the Bligh or Beattie bunch could possibly consider voting for Labor, even if they had Jesus Christ himself leading them. Even JC could not perform enough miracles to make the Queensland labor rabble into a responsible government.

That being said, it is obvious that very few voters think much about government except for a week or so when the TV advertisements hit full pitch. Probably just one good add swings more than a few electorates.

Of those who do give some thought to government it appears to me that most are voting purely short term & selfishly. It seems they are only interested in how a government will affect their hip pocket in the next couple of years. I guess there is going to be a great deal of future shock for many.

One has to be careful comparing the Bjelke Peterson government with modern election results. BP held on because of an outlandish gerrymandering of electoral boundaries.

BP's authoritarian instincts are however heavily reflected in Newman's attitude, comments and behaviour. In adopting the approach that he has he is undoubtedly influenced by the huge majority he has in the Qld parliament. Currently, Qld is indistinguishable from a one party state as the means for effective scrutiny of government actions is absent.

That in turn is a direct result of the voting system where getting half of the vote delivers 80+ percent of the seats. It cannot be seriously argued that such a result is in the interests of democracy, and it scarcely reflects the range of electoral support that exists.

Labor think they will be the beneficiaries next time around on the strength of the Redcliffe by-election swing, so they are not interested in real reform. One day perhaps we will accept that we do not have the world's best electoral system and look seriously at reform that will be to the benefit of all.