Flood hero Anna Bligh turns the tide with the greatest recovery in Newspoll history

ANNA Bligh has staged the biggest turnaround in the history of Newspoll, sweetening the temptation for the Queensland Premier to call an early state election.

Flood hero

ANNA Bligh has staged the biggest turnaround in the history of Newspoll, sweetening the temptation for the Queensland Premier to ditch her promise to run full-term and jump to an early state election on the back of leadership turmoil in the opposition.

As NSW voters prepare to go to the polls on Saturday to pass judgment on Kristina Keneally's deeply unpopular state Labor government, Ms Bligh's strong performance during the recent flood and cyclone emergencies has put her in the box seat to deliver the ALP a sixth successive state election victory in Queensland.

State Labor's base vote shaded that of the Liberal National Party for the first time since Ms Bligh was elected Premier in her own right two years ago, after Peter Beattie handed over the leadership. The 12-point surge in Labor's primary vote, from a lowly 26 per cent to 38 per cent, one point ahead of the LNP, would deliver Ms Bligh a comfortable win after preferences were distributed.

The LNP's primary vote fell eight points - from 45 per cent to 37 per cent.

Queensland Labor's two-party-preferred vote surged 11 points to 52 per cent in the January-March quarter, kicking it four points clear of the LNP.

This wipes out the commanding lead the LNP had opened in the October-December Newspoll, where it headed Labor by 18 points, 59 to 41 per cent on two-party-preferred terms.

Today's Newspoll, conducted exclusively for The Australian, adds weight to arguments for Ms Bligh to bolt to the polls before new LNP leader Campbell Newman can consolidate his position and allay concern about the unorthodox arrangement for him to lead from outside parliament.

Ms Bligh's personal approval has made an astonishing recovery from the depths plumbed prior to Christmas, when only 24 per cent of voters backed the job she was doing as Premier. At that time, 67 per cent of voters were dissatisfied with her performance.

Her rating is now firmly back in positive territory, with 49 per cent approving of her performance against 43 per cent dissatisfied.

Twice as many voters gave Ms Bligh the tick as better premier over her former opponent, John-Paul Langbroek, who quit as opposition leader on Tuesday to make way for Mr Newman, the Lord Mayor of Brisbane. Ms Bligh's rating in the head-to-head comparison climbed from 31 per cent to 53 per cent, while Mr Langbroek's slumped from 41 per cent to 26 per cent.

Support for the Greens fell three points to 10 per cent.

Newspoll chief executive Martin O'Shannessy said Labor's revival in Queensland was unprecedented. No political leader had mounted a recovery in the nation's most respected opinion poll to rival that of Ms Bligh's since December.

"I can't give you a comparison," Mr O'Shannessy said. "This is very different to the kind of numbers we have seen in the past."

The Newspoll boss credited Ms Bligh's disaster management over the summer for the turnaround.

Today's Newspoll will justify the high-risk strategy by the LNP to draft Mr Newman into the leadership, even though his future is dependent on him wresting the relatively safe seat of Ashgrove from Labor at the state election.

In parliament yesterday, Ms Bligh brushed aside claims by the LNP's interim parliamentary leader, Jeff Seeney, that an early election would represent a breach of faith with the electorate. Until Mr Newman's elevation, Ms Bligh had insisted 2011 would be a year of rebuilding and she would not call an election until early next year. She now refuses to rule out an early poll.

The Premier told a fiery parliamentary question time, where the government ridiculed the new LNP leadership arrangements, that Mr Seeney's position was illegitimate.

"This morning we saw the interim Leader of the Opposition stand in his place and challenge the government to call an early election," Ms Bligh said.

"He called on us to 'bring it on'. Now, half an hour later, he is calling on us to call it off."

Mr Seeney replied: "Is that the best you can do? I'm shattered."

Before hitting the hustings yesterday in Ashgrove, held for Labor by Environment Minister Kate Jones on a 7.1 per cent margin, Mr Newman said he did not back away from his previous position that state government should be scrapped. He flagged a new compact with local government to deliver reform.

Additional reporting: Rosanne Barrett