It is all very well and it sounds very seductive to say we are going to have harmonisation of regulations, but for example the way that funds are distributed around the states these days, you are positively penalised if you actually want to have say a lower payroll tax or sort of conditions.

In the 2008 election the ALP lost at least 6 wards to the Liberal Party giving the Liberals a majority. He also announced that he intended to have himself and his top two shadow ministers Seeney and Tim Nicholls sworn in as an interim three-man government until a full ministry could be named with Seeney as deputy premier and Nicholls as treasurer. It was easily the worst defeat a sitting government has ever suffered in Queensland and one of the most lopsided election results ever recorded at the state level in Australia.

In March 2011 Newman announced that he would challenge Leader of the Opposition John-Paul Langbroek for the leadership of the LNP. He was sworn in as premier two days later. Campbell Kevin Thomas Newman (born 12 August 1963) is an Australian politician and the 38th and current Premier of Queensland since 26 March 2012.