Campbell Newman - Election Victory

Election Victory

On 25 January 2012, Bligh announced that a state election would be held in Queensland on 24 March, but that she would not formally ask the Governor to dissolve parliament until 19 February. For Newman to unseat Bligh as premier, he not only needed to win Ashgrove but had to lead the LNP to at least an 11-seat gain.

On 15 March 2012, the Premier Anna Bligh referred to the CMC material concerning an office in a building owned by interests associated with Newman's family. Despite allegations of inappropriate dealings for personal benefit, a week before the election the CMC finalised its assessment that there was no evidence of official misconduct by Newman while he was Lord Mayor of Brisbane. Consequently, no further investigation was warranted nor would be conducted by the CMC concerning Newman.

In the election, Newman led the LNP to a comprehensive victory. The LNP won 78 seats against only seven for Labor, taking 44 seats on a swing of 14.5 percent. This was largely because Brisbane, Labor's power base for over 20 years, swung over dramatically to support Newman. The LNP won an unheard-of 37 seats in Brisbane, in many cases on swings of 10 percent or more. By comparison, it had gone into the election holding only six of the capital's 40 seats; Labor had held power mostly on the strength of winning at least 30 seats there in every election since 1989. 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. Newman himself won a convincing victory in Ashgrove, taking 51 percent of the primary vote and 54 percent of the two-party vote on a swing of 13.8 percent—almost double the swing he needed.

Newman formally claimed victory at 8:45 pm Queensland time, saying he'd received a mandate to make Queensland "a can-do place once more."