Blame for fall lies firmly at leader’s feet

CAMPBELL Newman can’t ignore the problem any more, because his backbench won’t.

Just more than two years after scoring the biggest election win in Australian history, the Liberal National Party is no longer looking at an easy three terms in government but at a fight to be re-elected. And the Premier should wear most of the blame.

This is a government that has a good story but seems unable to tell it. The economy is turning around, with growth forecast to double next year and a surplus on the horizon. The health and education sectors are free of the scandals that plagued them under Labor.

But the pugnacious Premier has turned off many voters with his “with me or against me’’ tone. In February, Newman privately conceded his government had “scared people’’ with its public service cuts and last year’s crackdown on bikies.

He declared that this was the year when “it all comes together’’ and that he would spend the year getting the message across of his government’s successes.

Instead, the agenda has been dominated by ugly fights, and even uglier policy. There was the brawl with doctors over contracts, with lawyers over bikies and worrying changes to the Crime and Misconduct Commission and political donation laws and, finally, with the judiciary over the new chief justice. And then came the state budget and its call for mass privatisation of state assets.

It’s hard to imagine that Labor, despite the plummeting popularity of Newman and his government, could win the next election. Annastacia Palaszczuk has done a commendable job in leading a team of just eight MPs in the 89-seat parliament.

But Labor has offered up almost nothing as alternative policy and doesn’t look anywhere near ready for government.