Campbell Newman admits his Queensland government got some things ‘very, very wrong’

CAMPBELL Newman has ­admitted the government he led got some things “very, very wrong” and that he knows what he probably should have done to win the 2015 election. But would voters have noticed?

Campbell Newman says he may have even survived last year’s electoral wipe-out had he acted more stealthily. Picture: Jack Tran

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CAMPBELL Newman has ­admitted the government he led got some things “very, very wrong”.

The former premier yesterday said he got the policies right but did not deliver them well. And he admitted suffering from sour grapes.

Mr Newman said he may have even survived last year’s electoral wipe-out had he acted more stealthily. A glaring example, he said, was the decision to offer voluntary redundancies in the public service.

“It was as simple as this: I got up in parliament and said this was going to happen. I was ­honest about it, I was upfront.

“If I did it being stealthy, I probably would have got away with it.”

Mr Newman was elaborating on an article he wrote for The Sunday Mail in which he warned NSW Premier Mike Baird that he too faced political oblivion if he persisted with ­decisions like banning greyhound racing, urging Mr Baird to overturn the ban.

Mr Newman said Queenslanders were upset by the pace of change after his government rocketed to power in March 2012.

“Because we did a whole lot of stuff and did it quickly … Queenslanders were presented with tales of conflict and dissent and upheaval every night on the news,” he said.

“It didn’t go down too well. In the end, people got scared.”

He accused the Queensland television networks of exaggerating the conflicts.

“Politics is about perceptions. People resented it and so they acted at the ballot box.”

Campbell Newman says Queenslanders were upset by the pace of change after his government rocketed to power in March 2012. Picture: Jack Tran

Mr Newman said his government put the economy first when many people didn’t give two hoots about the economy.

He added: “Do I have a feeling about sour grapes?

‘‘Yes, I do. I feel frustrated our mission was cut short.”

In the article, he said: “The government I led between 2012 and 2015 got some things very, very wrong.

“While I believe we pursued the right policies, we certainly got the politics, the pace of change and the communication wrong.

“But one factor from our term of government remains clear: the actions we were taking and the problems we were fixing were core platforms of our party.

“They were issues our party members and our electoral base believed in.

‘‘We just didn’t deliver them very well.”