Gillard sparked mayor's switch

CAMPBELL Newman has provided the most detailed explanation yet of why he lunged for the leadership of Queensland's Liberal National Party.

CAMPBELL Newman has provided the most detailed explanation yet of why he lunged for the leadership of Queensland's Liberal National Party, gambling that he could be elected premier from outside parliament.

It came as LNP boss Bruce McIver yesterday confirmed that the party was helping Mr Newman meet his personal expenses after he threw in his high-paying job as Brisbane lord mayor to run for the state seat of Ashgrove and lead the conservatives to a state election due early next year.

"We are supporting him financially. We are helping to put bread on his table," Mr McIver told The Weekend Australian. He refused to detail the arrangements, saying they were private. Mr Newman, through a spokeswoman, confirmed the LNP was "covering some . . . living expenses", but it was a far cry from the $211,327 salary he gave up.

Prior to announcing his jump to state politics, Mr Newman had reaffirmed that he intended to seek a third term in City Hall at elections next March and, if returned as mayor, would leave politics after serving it. Allegations that Mr McIver tried to parachute Mr Newman into the safe Liberal-held seat of Moggill, by offering sitting MP Bruce Flegg a cushy post overseas are being investigated by Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission following a complaint filed by the state ALP.

Both Mr Flegg and Mr McIver have strenuously denied any such deal, while Mr Newman has said he knew nothing of it. Mr Newman revealed, in an interview with The Weekend Australian, that he had first raised his plans to switch to state politics in February with his then deputy at City Hall, Graham Quirk. It was the first of two opportunities Mr Newman presented to figures within the LNP to veto his audacious plan.

"The first call was to Graham, and I asked him, would he be prepared to step up to the plate and put his hand up to be lord mayor," Mr Newman said.

Mr Newman said he had then approached LNP Treasury spokesman and former Brisbane city councillor Tim Nicholls. "I told him, 'Tim . . . there is always speculation about your own aspirations (and) all you have to do is say no . . . and that's as far as it will go'." Mr Newman said Mr McIver had been told at some point during these discussions that he was "prepared to have a go" in state politics.

But Mr Newman said he couldn't say whether he had spoken to the LNP president himself.

Asked why he had backflipped on his commitment to stay at City Hall, Mr Newman cited a conversation with Julia Gillard. This "torrid" 10-minute phone exchange over flood reconstruction funding for Brisbane had brought to a head his frustration with dealing with Labor governments in Canberra and at the state level.

Mr Newman said he had questioned the Prime Minister why the federal government would not pay to repair, or replace, flood-damaged water and sewerage treatment plants in Brisbane operated by state utilities.

This brought to a head long-standing frustration with Anna Bligh's state Labor government.

"Anna Bligh would not stand up for Queensland, she's not standing up on the carbon tax. She always puts the interests of the Labor Party ahead of the people of Queensland," he said.