Campbell Newman

Campbell Kevin Thomas Newman (born 12 August 1963) is an Australian former politician who served as the 38th Premier of Queensland from 26 March 2012 to 14 February 2015.

Campbell Newman was born on 12 August 1963 in Canberra, to parents who later both represented Tasmania in the federal parliament and were both ministers in Liberal–National coalition governments.

His father, Kevin, represented the federal seat of Bass from 1975 to 1984, and was a minister in the Fraser government.

He joined the Australian Army as a staff cadet at the Royal Military College, Duntroon in 1981, graduating as a lieutenant in 1985.

His mother, Jocelyn Newman (née Mullett), was a Senator for Tasmania (1986–2002) and a minister in the Howard government.

Campbell Newman was raised in Tasmania, attending Launceston Church Grammar School, then returned to Canberra.

He spent 13 years in the army, resigning in 1993 with the rank of major.

He has an honours degree in civil engineering from the University of New South Wales.

He moved to Queensland, where he graduated with an MBA from the University of Queensland, then worked as a consultant for PA Consulting Group, and subsequently for the agricultural storage company Grainco, before deciding to stand for election as lord mayor of Brisbane.

In the 2004 election, Newman narrowly defeated Labor incumbent Tim Quinn.

However, a majority of wards returned Labor councillors, meaning Newman had to work with a Labor-dominated civic cabinet and a Labor deputy mayor.

The most significant infrastructure item initiated or delivered during this first term was the TransApex package of bridge, traffic and tunnel projects.

However, according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation elections analyst Antony Green, Newman carried The Gap ward, which contains the bulk of Ashgrove (Brisbane City Council wards are almost as large as state electorates), with 56 per cent of the two-party vote in 2004 and almost 70 per cent in 2008.

He became a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP) following the July 2008 merger of the Queensland Liberals and the Nationals.

In the 2008 election, Newman was re-elected and the Liberals took control of the council by taking at least six wards from Labor.

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 fifth-best mayor in the world.

According to ABC News, the LNP's organisational wing wanted Newman to run for a state seat and the leadership when polls showed he was the only non-Labor politician who matched Premier Anna Bligh's popularity during the 2010–11 Queensland floods.

Jones held Ashgrove with a margin of 7.1 points, making it a "fairly safe" Labor seat, on paper.

He was LNP Leader from 2 April 2011 to 7 February 2015; Newman previously served as the 15th Lord Mayor of Brisbane from 27 March 2004 to 3 April 2011.

Newman was elected to the lord mayorship as a member of the Liberal Party.

In March 2011, Newman announced that he would challenge opposition leader John-Paul Langbroek for the leadership of the LNP.

Langbroek resigned, and Newman was elected his successor.

As Newman was not a member of the Legislative Assembly, former state Nationals leader Jeff Seeney was elected interim opposition leader while Newman headed the party's election team from outside the legislature.

On 18 March 2011, Nine News Queensland 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 at the time, to resign and hand his seat to Newman.

Under this plan, once Newman was safely in the legislature, he would have challenged Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek—who, like Newman, is from the Liberal side of the LNP merger—for the leadership of the LNP.

Newman subsequently acknowledged he had been approached about moving up to state politics.

He served as the member for Ashgrove in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland between 24 March 2012 and 31 January 2015.

Newman led the LNP in the 2012 state election, winning 78 of 89 seats from a 44-seat two-party swing, a record for Queensland.

At the same time, he was elected to the seat of Ashgrove in western Brisbane.

He was sworn in as premier two days later, becoming the first Brisbane-based non-Labor premier in 97 years.

Although he did not 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 re-election in 2012.

However, on 22 March, Newman announced that he was seeking the LNP preselection for the west Brisbane seat of Ashgrove, held by Labor's Kate Jones, in the election due for 2012.

If he won preselection, Newman said, he would then make a bid for the LNP leadership.

At the 2015 state election, the Newman-led LNP suffered a 14.0-point two-party swing, resulting in a hung parliament—of 89 seats, Labor won 44 seats and the statewide two-party vote while the LNP were reduced to 42 seats.

Newman himself lost his own seat to his Labor predecessor, Kate Jones.

On 10 February 2015, Newman submitted his resignation and he was replaced as premier by Annastacia Palaszczuk four days later as Labor formed a minority government.

In July 2021, Newman resigned from the LNP, and in August 2021 announced he had joined the Liberal Democrats and would be standing as the party's lead Senate candidate in Queensland at the 2022 Australian federal election.

To date, Newman remains the only premier of Queensland from the Liberal National Party.