Newman calls secret meeting as poll brings bad news

Updated

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Ministers meet amid secrecy (7pm TV News QLD)

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman summoned Cabinet ministers and top-ranking public servants to a secret meeting in a Brisbane ballet school today as a Galaxy poll showed his popularity with voters plunging.

Queensland's Cabinet usually meets every Monday morning in the Executive Building in the heart of the city.

The media is usually advised if the Executive Building meeting is not going ahead.

But in an extraordinary move today, a Government spokeswoman said Cabinet was meeting somewhere in the inner Brisbane suburb of West End - but would not say where, or when.

Media crews later tracked the ministers down at the Thomas Dixon Centre - a former shoe factory which is now the headquarters of Queensland Ballet - in West End.

When reporters were finally let in they witnessed a greatly expanded meeting, with public service directors-general and chiefs of staff in attendance for the final day of a two-day strategy conference.

Other politicians would have gone to a plush resort, we've gone to a government building in West End. Hardly a secret. Campbell Newman

The unprecedented move came as a poll published in today's Courier-Mail newspaper showed Mr Newman's popularity falling, with nearly half of the state's voters unhappy with the way he is doing his job.

The Galaxy poll of 800 voters across Queensland says Mr Newman's dissatisfaction rating is now standing at 49 per cent, up from 19 per cent in May.

His satisfaction rating fell from 64 per cent to 44 per cent in the same period.

But the Premier has laughed off criticism of the secret meeting.

Mr Newman told journalists they were wrapping up a two-day strategy meeting mapping out the state's future.

"There's no secret to this," he said.

"We have meetings all the time. We have a Cabinet meeting every Monday.

"Other politicians would have gone to a plush resort, we've gone to a government building in West End. Hardly a secret."

The fall in the number of voters who think the Premier is doing a good job comes as the State Government slashes public sector jobs and services.

The ABC's Queensland political reporter Chris O'Brien says a number of recent polls have confirmed "a marked fall both in Campbell Newman's personal rates and to a somewhat lesser extent the Liberal National Party's rating".

"It seems to me that he is paying a bigger price personally in the polls than the party is for the unpopular cuts to the public sector," he told ABC News Breakfast.

"Almost a couple of months ago now [Mr Newman] stood up in the Parliament and announced that Queensland had 20,000 more public servants than the state could afford.

"Since then, there's been some to-ing and fro-ing about how many of those public servants are going to be cut... so the unions have been campaigning relentlessly, staging regular rallies outside Parliament to protest against 20,000 cuts.

"And it seems as though the rest of the population have caught on because Campbell Newman's personal satisfaction rating has fallen from 64 to 44 per cent.

"That is a very big drop. And his dissatisfaction rating has increased to 49 per cent, meaning he now has a negative personal satisfaction rating, according to Galaxy.

"The LNP has dropped from 54 per cent to 48 per cent on their primary vote. It still has a 60-40 [two-party] lead over the ALP. So that is why Campbell Newman appears to be paying a bigger personal cost for the cuts than the party is.

"To put it into context let's remember the LNP has a gigantic majority in the Queensland Parliament ... so they have a long way to fall if they're going to fall at all."

The State Government is expected to provide more details on the extent of the job cuts when Treasurer Tim Nicholls hands down his budget on September 11.

Topics: government-and-politics, states-and-territories, liberal-national-party, qld, australia

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