Mum's the word for Campbell Newman and Anna Bligh as campaign ends

FOR all the advisers, glad-handers and other hangers-on that surround political leaders, it's often a pretty lonely job.

FOR all the advisers, glad-handers and other hangers-on that surround political leaders, it's often a pretty lonely job.

 So at the end of a long six-week election campaign which built to a frenetic climax yesterday, it was no surprise that after the last public event, both Campbell Newman and Anna Bligh had their mothers close by.

Newman lunched with his mother, Jocelyn, the former cabinet minister in John Howard's government, while Frances Tancred was back at Anna Bligh's electorate office in South Brisbane yesterday, assumably to give her daughter a cup of tea and a big hug. Bligh looked as though she needed it. After she finished her final press conference yesterday, she gave an out-of-character maniacal laugh which betrayed just how tired and emotional she really was.

It's a contrast to three years ago, when her final day before the election was spent running through shopping centres from the Gold Coast up to Brisbane in marginal seats which the ALP mostly held. She freely admitted that yesterday she was running on adrenalin, having been up until 2am the previous night singing karaoke in a bar, visiting the night shift at a factory, and seeing new-born babies and their mothers at Ipswich General Hospital.

Yesterday she achieved her goal of 50 electorates in five days, with only seven yesterday, working in a band up Brisbane's northern suburbs then down to the southside and back to her own electorate in Brisbane Central. At Banyo on Brisbane's northside there was enthusiasm and lots of "Go Anna! shouts, but the very fact that she was even there on the final day of the election was more telling. Banyo is in the electorate of Nudgee, which has been a safe Labor seat since it was created in 1960 and the party holds it with a margin of over 14 per cent.

Yet if she'd lost the election three years ago, which she came home to win in the final week, she would almost certainly be sitting a lot better now. In retrospect, the 2009 election would have been a good one for the Queensland ALP to lose, in much the same way that the 1993 federal election and 2007 NSW state election would both have been good ones for the ALP to lose. Had that happened, it would have been a slight loss that gave them a good platform for rebuilding, in much the same way that the Victorian ALP is now positioned.

Newman was running on adrenalin as well yesterday, but of a more positive type. He hit Brisbane's fruit and vegetable markets early yesterday, a loud, boisterous place, where he met loud, boisterous men all looking forward to a change of government.

After a morning round of media interviews he went back to his must-win seat of Ashgrove, where he met Cairns-based opponents of the Wild Rivers legislation, outfoxing supporters of the Wild Rivers legislation, mostly from the Wilderness Society, who were driving around the electorate of Ashgrove trying to find Newman.

Newman finished his campaigning with a visit to the Tackle and Tinnie Show, where he added his prowess at casting a fishing reel to other manly outdoor pursuits he demonstrated during the campaign such as kicking a football and wielding the tongs at barbecues.

Before that he had lunch with his mother, sister and wife. Newman makes much of his outsider status, not even being in state parliament, but the best man at his wedding was Andrew Wilkie, the independent member for Denison in the federal parliament, while both his parents were cabinet ministers - his late father, Kevin, having served in Malcolm Fraser's cabinet while his mother was family and community services minister in the Howard government. Given the political background of his mother and the way the polls are looking, Campbell Newman would certainly have been Mummy's Boy at lunch yesterday.