Queensland Parliament Question Time's favourite topic of the day LNP's dirt files

THERE was no escaping the dirt in Queensland Parliament Question Time as the fallout from the LNP's 'dirt files' continued.

CAMPBELL Newman may have chosen an exceptionally clean house in Ashgrove for his press conference yesterday morning to claim he knew nothing about the so-called "dirt files" but by Question Time in the afternoon there was no way of avoiding the subject of dirt.

A question from Opposition Leader Jeff Seeney on the effect of a carbon tax on electricity prices?

"Ha," snorted Stephen Robertson, Minister for Energy and Water Utilities, a "last desperate attempt to draw attention away from where the politics in this state is currently at".

Which is rock bottom, in the dirt.

Read the dirt dossiers in a special 8-page liftout in today's print edition of The Courier-Mail.

A Dorothy Dixer came from Kate Jones - the Member for Ashgrove who is being challenged by Newman for her marginal seat - but she had trouble with her microphone.

"Leave if off!" shouted some wit before she found the switch.

She wanted to ask the Education Minister, Cameron Dick, about The Gap State High School's excellent leadership program, which caused the Minister to immediately think of Newman and dirt.

"Ah, leadership," he said, wearing an immaculate suit and looking like the lawyer he is.

"Leadership is about responsibility and taking charge. Today Campbell Newman has showed he has failed at that task."

Another question, from Member for Murrumba Dean Wells who asked Attorney-General Paul Lucas about disclosures within the Electoral Act, a question that once again led straight to Newman.

With his belly straining his shirt and his glasses that look a few sizes too small, Lucas resembled an English end-of-the-pier comic.

But, when he spoke, he was 100 per cent politician - within minutes he left the Electoral Act to talk about Newman's paranoia, which he likened to Richard Nixon's.

In fact, Queensland today reminded him of the "bad old days of the Special Branch" when honest citizens were subject to collective dossiers dishing the dirt.

The crisis in Gladstone fisheries, employment opportunities, housing stats: All roads led to dirt and Newman.

Even actual roads led to Newman. The Minister for Main Roads and Fisheries, Craig Wallace, told the Member for Keppell, Paul Hoolahan, that he had looked at roads from Clonclurry to Burketown, fixing up those dirt spots damaged by the floods: "I've seen a lot of dirt but I've never seen as much dirt as I saw in The Courier-Mail this morning. . . this is the sort of stuff you'd see scribbled on a toilet wall."

By the end of Question Time, Seeney had twisted up the clip of his pen so far that it was pointing at the ceiling. As soon as it was over he hurried from the chamber, towards the clean light of the afternoon.