Campbell Newman

Campbell Newman
Leader of the Liberal National Party
Incumbent
Assumed office April 2011
Deputy	Tim Nicholls
Preceded by	John-Paul Langbroek
15th Lord Mayor of Brisbane
In office 27 March 2004 – 3 April 2011
Deputy	David Hinchliffe (2004–2008) Graham Quirk (2008–2011)
Preceded by	Tim Quinn
Succeeded by	Graham Quirk
Personal details
Born	Campbell Kevin Thomas Newman 12 August 1963 (1963-08-12) Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Liberal Party of Australia (2004-2008) Liberal National Party of Queensland (2008-present)
Spouse(s)	Lisa Newman (née Monsour)
Relations	Kevin Newman (father) Jocelyn Newman (mother)
Alma mater	Royal Military College, Duntroon University of New South Wales University of Queensland Launceston Church Grammar School
Military service
Nickname(s)	Noddy
Allegiance	Australia
Service/branch	Australian Army
Years of service	1981–1993
Rank	Major
Unit	Royal Australian Engineers
Awards	Australian Defence Medal

Campbell Kevin Thomas Newman (born 12 August 1963) is the leader of the Liberal National Party of Queensland. He was the 15th Lord Mayor of Brisbane from 2004 to 2011.

He was elected to the mayoralty in 2004 and re-elected in 2008. Newman's slogan during the 2004 and 2008 election campaigns was "Can Do". It is common for supporters to refer to him as "Can Do Campbell". At Duntroon, he was nicknamed "Noddy", in reference both to his appearance and to his misadventures during his time in the Army.

Campbell was originally a member of the Liberal Party of Australia, and has been a member of the LNP since the July 2008 merger of the Queensland Liberals and Nationals.. In March 2011, Newman announced that he would challenge Leader of the Opposition John-Paul Langbroek for the leadership of the LNP. Langbroek resigned, and Newman was elected his successor. As Newman is not presently a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, former state Nationals leader Jeff Seeney was elected interim opposition leader, while Newman will lead the LNP to the next state election and simultaneously contest the seat of Ashgrove. He will thus become Premier of Queensland if the LNP wins the election and he is elected to the legislature.

Early life and military career

Born in Canberra, Newman is the son of former Senator and Federal Minister Jocelyn Newman, and former Member for Bass and Federal Minister, the late Kevin Newman. He was raised in Tasmania, where his father held the federal seat of Bass, then returned to Canberra where his mother served as a Senator.

Newman attended the Royal Military College, Duntroon, and joined the Australian Army as a lieutenant in 1981. He is a qualified civil engineer with an honours degree in civil engineering from the University of New South Wales and spent thirteen years in the army, retiring with the rank of Major in 1993.

He moved to Queensland where he graduated with an MBA from the University of Queensland, then worked for the agricultural storage company Grainco, before deciding to stand for election as Lord Mayor of Brisbane.

Lord Mayor of Brisbane

Due to the laws governing the election of Brisbane's Lord Mayor and City Councillors, Newman was elected directly to replace Tim Quinn. However, in the 2004 election a majority of wards returned ALP Councillors, meaning Newman had to work with a cabinet dominated by his nominal Opposition, and a Labor Deputy Mayor. In the 2008 election, the ALP lost at least 6 wards to the Liberal Party, giving the Liberals a majority.

Newman was selected as one of 25 mayors from across the world shortlisted for the 2010 World Mayor Prize, an online competition aimed at raising the profile of civic leaders. When the results were announced, Newman was declared the 5th best mayor in the world.

During Newman's time as Mayor his administration delivered 700 new buses, 12 new ferries, spent $1 billion on improving suburban roads, built two new bridges across the Brisbane River, one tunnel- with two more under construction, opened three new swimming pools and a library. During his tenure, Brisbane made heavy use of green electricity and adopted full carbon offset of emissions of council vehicles. His team also purchased 500 hectares of bushland to save it from development and planted 2 million trees.

State politics and LNP leadership

On 18 March 2011, Nine News Queensland's Spencer Jolly reported that the LNP's organisational wing was engineering a plan to make Newman the leader of the LNP. According to Jolly, party president Bruce McIver was trying to arrange for Bruce Flegg, the former leader of the Queensland Liberals and the MP for Moggill, the only safe LNP seat in Brisbane, to resign his seat. Newman would then run for the seat in a by-election, and if he won, would then challenge Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek for the leadership of the LNP. Newman subsequently acknowledged he'd been approached about moving up to state politics. Although he didn't rule out running in the next state election, he stated that for the time being, he was committed to serving out his term as Lord Mayor and running for reelection in 2012.

However, on 22 March, Newman announced that he was seeking pre-selection for the state electoral district of Ashgrove, held by Labor's Kate Jones, and if successful, he would then make a bid for the LNP leadership. According to ABC News, the LNP's organisational wing engineered Newman's bid for leadership when polls showed he was the only non-Labor politician who matched Premier Anna Bligh's popularity during the 2010-11 Queensland floods. Newman would need at least a seven-percent swing to take Ashgrove off Labor.

Within hours of Newman's announcement, Langbroek and deputy leader Lawrence Springborg both resigned their posts. Langbroek had been under growing pressure from the LNP's organisational wing to stand down after Labor's numbers rebounded in the wake of the floods, but insisted he would not do so as late as a day before Newman's announcement. On 4 April 2011, Newman was elected as the leader of the LNP. His first act was to announce a new slogan for the LNP, "Can Do Queensland."

Since Newman was not in parliament, standard practice called for an LNP MP from a safe seat to resign so that Newman could enter parliament via a by-election. However, a by-election could not be arranged. To solve this problem, former state Nationals leader Jeff Seeney was elected as interim parliamentary leader of the LNP--and hence Leader of the Opposition--while Newman will lead the LNP election team. Seeney has agreed to cede the post of parliamentary leader to Newman should Newman win election to the legislature. The prospect of the Opposition being led by someone who wasn't even in the legislature led Bligh to briefly consider breaking her previous vow to let the legislature run full-term. She had promised to focus exclusively on recovery in 2011, but was concerned that the LNP's leadership situation could make the cooperation necessary for the recovery effort impossible. Bligh also accused Newman of "abandoning" the Lord Mayor's post, saying that Newman should not have "cut and run" while the recovery effort was still underway.

The first Newspoll taken after Newman assumed the leadership showed that the LNP had regained the lead in opinion polling; it had led most polls from July until the floods. Newman has also consistently led Bligh as preferred premier.

Soon after Newman became leader of the LNP, Labor state Treasurer Andrew Fraser used parliamentary privilege to claim he had received information from within the LNP that Flegg had been given an inducement to resign and allow Newman to run for his seat in a by-election. On 18 July 2011, the Crime and Misconduct Commission announced that the investigation found no evidence to support Fraser's allegations and all parties were cleared. Billionaire and LNP benefactor Clive Palmer said the "CMC [was] colluding with the government" while the LNP accused Fraser of "knowing too much about the investigation".

Newman made it clear that when he took over the LNP leadership, all policies previously announced would be scrapped and essentially become "null and void" with new policy announcements to be made. In an attempt to win voter support in regional Queensland, Newman's first official LNP policy announcement was that he would not support daylight saving in Queensland or South East Queensland, even though as Brisbane's Lord Mayor he had been a vocal advocate for daylight saving.

Newman has since announced a number of policies including a number of measures to reduce the cost of living for Queenslanders, policies to protect Fraser Island's dingoes and dugong and turtles from animal cruelty and a comprehensive planning process to fix the Bruce Highway.

Newman has stated his belief in same-sex marriage, however the LNP have stated that if they win government, they may move to repeal such laws.

On 25 January 2012, Bligh announced that state elections 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 will not only have to win Ashgrove, but must also lead the LNP to at least an 11-seat gain.

Personal life and family

Newman lives in Brisbane with his wife Lisa and their two children, Rebecca and Sarah.

External links

• City Mayors profile

Political offices
Preceded by Tim Quinn	Lord Mayor of Brisbane 2004–2011	Succeeded by Graham Quirk
Party political offices
Preceded by Jeff Seeney	Election Team Leader of the Queensland LNP 2011–present Served alongside: Jeff Seeney	Incumbent