Beattie ups stumps on LA story

PETER Beattie has walked away from his job of selling Queensland to the Americas

PETER Beattie has walked away from his job of selling Queensland to the Americas, and warned yesterday that the row over the new federal mining tax was hitting Australian competitiveness.

The former Queensland premier said his retirement a year early from the $395,000-a-year post as the state's Los Angeles-based trade and investment commissioner would end three decades of public life, including nine years at the helm of the state.

But he did fellow Queenslander Kevin Rudd no favours by talking up Julia Gillard as a "brilliant" option for prime minister, and pointing out that the resource super-profits tax would hurt Australia's competitiveness overseas if the bitter dispute between the government and big mining companies dragged on.

"I don't make any judgment about who is right and wrong in this debate," a visiting Mr Beattie said of the RSPT, after inviting reporters to his Brisbane home to announce he would be a "private citizen" from July.

He continued: "All I am saying is, the sooner the debate is over, the better for us it is internationally. And . . . you have got to put your best face on to the world . . . the last thing we need is an ongoing debate that is going to bugger that up."

Heaping praise on Ms Gillard, Mr Beattie said he had seen the Deputy Prime Minister "wow" audiences in the US, including a high-level gathering at the US State Department: "I just think she is superb . . . she can hold her own with any international audience . . . she is a great Australian."

Mr Beattie was less effusive about Mr Rudd. "I think he's represented Australia well overseas, which is where I have seen him. I haven't seen him in domestic politics very much."

Mr Beattie, 57, said he had opened all the doors he could for Queensland firms and investment into the state from Canada, the US and Latin America, and it was time to move on.

Anna Bligh, who succeeded as premier in 2007, said Mr Beattie had lived up to expectations that he "could sell ice to Eskimos", with the LA office on track to secure more than $462 million in investment and trade agreements this financial year.

However, the man Mr Beattie beat to become premier in 1998, then National Party incumbent Rob Borbidge, questioned whether the confessed media tart could really bring himself to stay out of the limelight.

"It almost seems out of character but maybe, just maybe, he has had enough and he does want to retire," Mr Borbidge said.

Long-time Beattie watcher Ross Fitzgerald, a prolific chronicler of Queensland history and columnist for this newspaper, said he expected Mr Beattie could still make a run in federal politics.

Others close to Mr Beattie said he might consider a tilt at City Hall and take on Liberal Lord Mayor Campbell Newman at the 2012 Brisbane City Council elections.

Mr Beattie insisted yesterday he was not interested in any role in politics. "Trust me," he added.

His wife, Heather, agreed: "Oh no, there will be no return tour. He will be doing it on his own."