Former premier Campbell Newman reveals he twice offered to quit before 2015 state election

IN the first time he has spoken publicly about his election loss, Campbell Newman has revealed he asked party bosses if his leadership had reached its “use-by date” months before the poll.

FORMER premier Campbell Newman twice asked party bosses if his leadership had reached its “use-by date” months before the election.

And both times he had ­offered to resign if it meant the LNP could win, Mr Newman revealed yesterday – the first time he has spoken publicly about his loss.

“I put it on the table because I wanted to make sure that we didn’t go into the 2015 election with me pulling the team down,” Mr Newman said in an exclusive interview.

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“I wanted them to have the best opportunity. I was genuine about it and quite happy to have given a new leader a chance to lead us into the election if I was an electoral liability.”

His revelation of the offers – not disputed yesterday by those party bosses who were present – came as battles rage behind the scenes over who is to blame ahead of the release of an internal party review by LNP elders Rob Borbidge and Joan Sheldon.

The recriminations have poisoned an already toxic relationship between the ousted premier and his lieutenants, former treasurer Tim Nicholls and deputy Jeff Seeney.

Mr Newman told The Courier-Mail he first offered to quit just weeks after the LNP’s second by-election drubbing in the Stafford poll in mid 2014.

He said the meeting took place at Parliament during the first sitting week after the July 19 loss which saw Labor’s Dr Anthony Lynham claim the seat.

Present were LNP State president Bruce McIver, LNP state director Brad Henderson and Mr Newman’s then chief of staff Ben Myers. Pollster Mark Textor was on the phone.

Campbell Newman: offered to quit.

“It was a start-up meeting for the 2015 campaign,” Mr Newman said. “At the very beginning of the meeting, before the formal agenda, the first thing I did was say ‘I have to put on the table, have I passed my use-by date’.

“At that stage I’d been two years leader of council opposition from outside, I’d been seven years elected as Lord Mayor, I’d been Leader of the (state) Opposition for a year and I’d been, for almost two and a half years, the Premier.

“That’s a long stint.

“But I was told very clearly … that I should continue on.”

He said his second offer to quit was made two or three months later.

The LNP did not dispute Mr Newman’s account of the meetings but in a short statement a spokesman said: “The LNP doesn’t comment on internal party matters and the leadership of the LNP’s parliamentary team is determined by its elected members, not the party organisation.”

The revelation is one of several expected to be detailed in Mr Newman’s biography, which could be released as early as October after the former Premier and the man helping him write his book, former LNP MP Gavin King, secured a deal with independent publisher Connor Court Publishing in Victoria

Mr King said he had struck a deal with Connor Court Publishing, a conservative publisher which has published the biographies of politicians including former NSW Premier Nick Greiner as well as divisive Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi’s book The Conservative Revolution.

He said the deal gave both himself and Mr Newman more control with the conservative think tank the Institute of Public Affairs — who have a member on the publisher’s editorial board — agreeing to help launch the book.

Mr King said former Prime Minister John Howard — a close friend of Mr Newman’s late father — had been asked to write the book’s foreword.

The book is likely to be 16 chapters long with at least five of those dedicated to the former Premier’s stint in state politics, Mr King said.

“It’s not just a sort of tattletale, pointing finger type of expose,” he said, with the book also detailing Mr Newman’s insights after more than a decade in politics as well as his family history.

“The book will take a ‘warts and all’ look at Campbell’s time in local and state politics, dig into his family history covering 40 years in politics while using his stories and experiences to explore the broader issues of reform and the need for tough decisions in government.

“It will also examine the volatility of voters, the psyche of the electorate and the role mainstream and social media plays in today’s political landscape.”

Mr King thumbed his nose at UQ Press for rejecting the book.

“I’d like to thank the leftist denizens at the University of Queensland Press for their petulant political behaviour because the national media attention their bizarre rejection of the book created — before they’d seen a single word — helped spark Connor Court’s interest in the project.”