Anna Bligh announces she's quitting Queensland Parliament in Brisbane. Credit:Tony Moore Her decision to resign from the seat of South Brisbane, which she has represented since 1995, will become effective on Friday. By 2pm, both Cameron Dick and Andrew Fraser were spending the day with their families and were considering the situation made possible by Ms Bligh’s resignation. The Labor frontbenchers both lost their seats in Saturday's election. Labor was Saturday night reduced to between six and eight seats in the 89-seat Queensland Parliament in a debilitating defeat.

"This result is absolutely shattering for the Australian Labor Party. This is much more than a loss; it is without doubt a devastating defeat," Ms Bligh said during her press conference yesterday. "The task for Labor is not be consumed by that heartbreak. ‘‘The task for us is to do everything in our power to recover, to rebuild and to renew and to be everything this party has been for more than a century,’’ she said. ‘‘This is going to be clearly an enormous task.’’



Ms Bligh refused to speculate if her deposed deputy Andrew Fraser, or dumped education minister Cameron Dick, would be put up by Labor in South Brisbane. This is much more than a loss; it is without doubt a devastating defeat

Before the election, Ms Bligh had said she’d stay on in parliament on the opposition benches if Labor lost. But she said the scale of her party’s defeat meant the party must move forward without her. Retiring parliamentary speaker John Mickel said it was the right and honourable thing to do. He said Ms Bligh had to accept responsibility for the election outcome. ‘‘She has done that. Queenslanders can’t ask any more,’’ he said.

‘‘The Labor party now has the opportunity to get clean air ... and start that mercurial task of trying to rebuild itself.’’ The country's first female premier to win an election, Ms Bligh agreed the priority for Labor was to not tear itself apart, and immediately begin to rebuild. ‘‘There is a very big challenge for Labor to be an effective opposition,’’ she said. ‘‘Frankly, they’re going to have to start the process of rebuilding almost immediately. ‘‘I do think it’s important the Queensland parliament has a balance of political viewpoints.

‘‘We certainly don’t have that now. ‘‘I think Labor is challenged to recover the confidence of the electorate and to grow their ranks so they can become an effective opposition and try to rebuild to a point where it could again challenge for government in the future." She said she had no idea what she would do next, but yesterday closed the book on her time in Queensland politics.



Ms Bligh said she wanted to spend more time with her family, and would map out her future in coming months. She announced her exit from parliament with her husband, Greg Withers, by her side. Ms Bligh accepted full responsibility for Labor’s loss, and apologised if her decision inconvenienced voters in her electorate.

She said she has suggested to the incoming government that the date of the upcoming Brisbane City Council elections - April 28 - be used for the South Brisbane by-election to minimise disruption to voters. "But that is entirely a matter for the incoming government," she said. The outgoing premier specifically ruled out re-entering politics at any stage in the future. “As I said, Queenslanders very decisively closed the chapter on Anna Bligh’s era in Queensland politics,” she said. She also ruled out entering federal politics.

“I have always said, as interesting as federal politics is and as important as it is to our nation, I don’t want to live that kind of life and I don’t want to take myself any further away from my family and I am not going to ask any more of them.” She said she did not know what her future held. “I have given every ounce and every waking hour in the last four and half years doing the best that I could for Queensland,” she said. “And while you’re doing that you simply don’t think about what you will do next. “So I can honestly say that I don’t know what the next phase of my life holds for me.

“I am very much looking forward to spending a lot more time with my family, with my friends and moving on to the next phase of my life whatever that might be.” She said she was very likely to stay in Queensland. Asked if she had reached her full potential as Premier, Ms Bligh said Labor had re-shaped Queensland. “I will always look back on my time as Premier, as minister, as deputy premier, as a time when we were busy re-shaping and transforming Queensland,” she said. “I am very proud of what the state has become during the time that Labor has been in government.

Loading “And I am very proud to have had the opportunity as Premier to put in place many of those changes.” - with AAP