Des Houghton blog: You blew it Queensland when you ousted Campbell Newman

OUR state has been asleep since Campbell Newman was ingloriously removed from office. You blew it Queensland. I hope you don’t make the same mistake twice. HAVE YOUR SAY

Columnist Des Houghton says the state blew it when former premier Campbell Newman was kicked out of office. Picture: Scott Fletcher

Yes, Campbell Newman has an authoritarian streak. I didn’t mind that at all. And I presume the million people who voted for him didn’t either. Churchill had an authoritarian streak. Thank God he did, because Britain would not have defeated Germany without it.

Yes, perhaps Newman was demanding and a little dictatorial, but Queensland was a political and economic wasteland following the Bligh-Beattie era and profound changes had to be made.

Newman was the one who arrived to make the hard choices. Queensland needed him desperately and he didn’t shirk the tough decisions. I still applaud his decision to cut the flab from the bloated public service.

Opposition leader Tim Nicholls now say the Newman government did not take the people with him. There may be a grain of truth in that. However, I don’t see much point in the conservative forces bickering about what might have been.

Queensland has been asleep since Newman was ingloriously removed from office.

You blew it Queensland. I hope you don’t make the same mistake twice.