The only people who have as little integrity as modern Labor are those who vote them in.
I fear that Campbell Newman will only last one term as was Rob Borbidge's fate.
Because people are so devoid of vision they'll just turn towards Labor again as soon as a Newman government lets it slip that there's enough money in the till for a Labor government to start squandering again.

I'm a bit excited about the prospect of "Can-do" as premier. I've never lived in Brisbane city, and reading the comments on the Courier-Mail website suggests that many in Brisbane don't like the guy or what he is doing to/for their city. Of course, those who comment on news sites are not always truly representative of the people.

My only concern is that, if a Brisbane mayor becomes premier, our state will become even more Brisbane-centric. While I'm sure Newman would like to think he'd be out there for the whole state, Brisbane is a city he knows well and its concerns have been foremost in his working mind for several years. To suddenly expand those horizons may be catastrophic.

Still, I have a lot more confidence in him than in old J-P. At least he has a track record of running something and, from what I have seen of Brisbane in the past few years, running it quite well. There will always be the knockers, but that's the nature of politics in Australia.

>>So rehctub, in what significant ways do you think Newman and the LNP would be better than Blight?

Interesting question, ludwig.

To answer I would firstly suggest that he does not have to be better than bligh, just better than the current (former) leader of the LNP.

You see labor have obtained office here for many years simply by default. There has been no credible alternative, full stop!

I myself have voted for labor, under duress, simply due to lack of choice.

Furthermore, rather than prance around the odd check our, or pretend to mop the odd floor, CN has actually worked in many areas, including rural QLD.

In any case my prediction is that QLD will see a 'mini boom' out of this because people in business, just like myself will feel safe in borrowing once again.

Business life here for the past few years has been in 'protection' and 'reactive mode' as opposed to 'pro active' mode.

I think it is fair to assume that AB will call a 'snap election' in an effort to try to defeat the LNP before they gain to much momentum.

Thanks rehctub.

You wrote:

<< I would firstly suggest that he does not have to be better than bligh, just better than the current (former) leader of the LNP. >>

Hmmm. I’d suggest that he would have to be a whole lot better than Bligh.

Oow hold on. Unfortunately he probably won’t need to be seen to be better than Bligh at all, just different. In fact, the majority of the votership would probably vote for him simply because he isn’t Bligh, and is someone with a bit of a public profile that can engender a certain degree of respect. In other words, he’ll probably get voted in by default, because people are sick of the incumbent. Same old story really. Then he’ll proceed to do nothing significantly different or better, and get booted out in a couple elections time on the same basis!! Such is Australian politics! Yawn ( :>|

<< In any case my prediction is that QLD will see a 'mini boom' out of this because people in business, just like myself will feel safe in borrowing once again. >>

Well, it would be nice if we could have an increase in confidence and dynamism in our economy, but it needs to NOT spur a higher rate of population growth (transmigration from southern states) in Queensland, and indeed needs to accompany a reducing rate.

THIS is the big deal for me – a dynamic, vibrant society… without the constant expansionism that pressures our future wellbeing, our environment, and which undermines or cancels out economic growth on a per-capita basis.

Would Campbell be concerned about this, even with southeast Queensland’s highly obvious population pressures?

Now, if old Bob Carr, former NSW premier, was to run for premier in QLD, I’d be excited, as he is one of the few politicians (now ex pollie) who has expressed genuine concern about the overriding issue of balancing our population with the resource base and environment.

But I’m afraid I can feel another yawn coming on just thinking about Premier Newman! ( ;~(

Dear Ludwig,

I share your concern about the transmigration of population into Queensland, but it is not primarily a local problem. There are pressures from Australia and the rest of the world. I belong to Sustainable Population Australia, but my membership is merely an expression of my concern. It does little to help with the problem.

So many politicians just seem oblivious. Howard talked about every Chinese eventually having a living standard equivalent to every Australian. We would choke to death like the anerobic bacteria that excreted oxygen into the atmosphere poisoning themselves but creating an atmosphere suitable for our type of life. Rudd seemed to think there was no practical limit on the amount of human biomass Australia could produce or import.

At the Cairo population conference representatives of the Catholic Church joined representatives of Islam in opposing population planning. They supported the Islamic objection to education for women in return for Islamic support for their opposition to birth control and abortion.

There are pollies such as the Labor MP who has joined with Dick Smith in promoting SPA, but he is a backbencher. Nobody in any position of power that I know of shows any degree of awareness.

David, I am pleased that you share my concerns. I too am a member of SPA and have been for 21 years.

The crying shame is, that with Campbell Newman coming to the fore as Queensland’s probable next premier, in most unusual circumstances that have really grabbed the media’s and community’s attention, that one of the first issues up for discussion or for him to express his views on isn’t GROWTH and the negative things that go with it such as issues of congestion, water, power, housing, etc

Given that there have been some quite critical growth-related issues in SEQ in recent times and that Bligh had commissioned a population summit, and given the high profile of Dick Smith, Kelvin Thomson, Bob Carr, David Attenborough and others on population growth, I would have hoped that the community would be demanding that a new potential leader shows some very strong down-gearing of growth and genuine sustainability views and policies.

It is only the second day after the Newman-for-premier story broke. But I bet there won’t be any significant discussion of this huge issue involving Newman and Bligh between now and the next election, let alone any real policies put forward by Newman for addressing it.