Insight

With just a few very long hours left of a very long State Election campaign here in Queensland, it’s safe to say that for the first time in 14 years, Queensland will wake up on Sunday with a new Government in tow.

The LNP is expected to take the keys to the Executive Building in Brisbane’s George St, the professional home of the current Labor Premier Anna Bligh, sometime after 6pm tomorrow evening.

We here in Queensland have been in a perpetual state of campaigning since Campbell Newman made his play for the top job, without having a seat in Parliament, in March 2011.

It’s also safe to say that the big end of town pulled up stumps as long ago as late last year when it came to liaising with Government or getting business done. This certainly became the case when the election was unofficially called in January, and then again when it became official in February with the Government moving into Caretaker mode.

The really good news to come out of the campaign is; business can soon get back to business.

Now that we will be able to get down to the nitty-gritty of who’s who in a future LNP Government, what the makeup of an LNP Cabinet will look like, and most importantly, who will be Premier, the big-end-of-town can re-open its doors and Queensland Departments can again answer phones and reply to emails.

It’s been a frustrating period for many business professionals as we watch Queensland sit ‘on hold’ while the election campaign is fought on many fronts.

The whole gamut of issues has been thrown into the melting pot of this campaign. We’ve been dealt the usual suspects including education, tourism, health, and transport. These have been sandwiched between two very potent issues.

Leadership – can Campbell Newman wrest the seat of Ashgrove from popular local MP, Kate Jones? – and the repealing of the Civil Unions legislation put into place in late 2011 by Queensland Labor to allow same-sex couples to register their union with the Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

These are the two issues that have dogged the LNP throughout the campaign. The LNP’s stance on Civil Unions is clear; it intends to repeal the legislation. The second issue is leadership. If, as expected, the LNP wins Government in its own right on the 24^th March, and Campbell Newman loses his run for the seat of Ashgrove, who will be Premier?

The polls tell us this matter is settled but, of course, the definitive answer is yet to come.

Whatever the outcome at tomorrow’s State poll, on Monday we will go back to work.

-JJ

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