"This team stands strongly in a stable way to take the state forward and we do not need federal counterparts to come and prop us up," Mr Newman said. Tony Abbott will be absent from Sunday's LNP Queensland election campaign launch Credit:Getty-Images Ms Bishop, the Foreign Affairs Minister who is far more popular than her leader, was widely tipped to attend Sunday's launch at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. But sources confirmed to Fairfax Media on Saturday that she would be joining the Prime Minister in absentia. It continues the notable absences of federal Liberal Party heavy hitters from the Queensland election trail.

Mr Abbott has visited the state once since Mr Newman called the election, attending the funerals of eight children stabbed to death in Cairns late last year. ALP candidate Kate Jones and federal ALP member for Sydney and Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Tanya Plibersek, at the Ashgrove Golf Club, Brisbane. Credit:Renee Melides He has been on holidays for most of the campaign. The absence of the federal Liberal Party leadership team from Sunday's event leaves just the Deputy Prime Minister, Nationals leader Warren Truss, and a host of Queensland federal MPs likely to attend, though none are expected to play significant roles. It comes in stark contrast to the Australian Labor Party's campaign, where there has been a heavy presence of the federal leadership team.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten spent five days on the campaign trail with his state counterpart, Annastacia Palaszczuk, during the week and, on Saturday, Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek arrived in Queensland to spend five days on the hustings. Griffith University communications professor Stephen Stockwell said it was surprising Ms Bishop would not be at Sunday's state launch. He speculated that she would visit Queensland before the January 31 poll date but said many other Liberal Party MPs, such as Treasurer Joe Hockey and Education Minister Christopher Pyne, were no chance of visiting. He said it was likely the absence of the federal Liberal Party on the Queensland campaign trail was likely to continue. "It's hard to pick anyone who wouldn't raise issues, [Malcolm] Turnbull is a possibility because he's not tagged with the Abbott brush but I don't think anyone would be real keen about Joe Hockey turning up or Christopher Pyne or Eric Abetz," he said. "In Queensland, you have the LNP running a strongly organised campaign and they will be looking to minimise intrusions into that campaign.

"I think everyone appreciates it's going to be a tight race." University of Queensland public policy lecturer Kath Gelber said the absence did not necessarily indicate a divide between the state and federal Liberal Party, saying all could appreciate what would bring the best chances of electoral victory. "The voters see a much stronger correlation between the federal and state governments than the state government would like them to," she said. "There will be no more friction than is normal – it's quite typical in Australia, normally. It's not an unusual situation that state parties want to campaign on state issues." Latest polling shows massive swings against the Newman government with a hung parliament and even a Labor victory possible.

In contrast to the LNP campaign, however, Labor are leaning heavily on the popularity of their federal leaders, with Mr Shorten credited as having the opposite effect to Mr Abbott on the recent Victorian election campaign. "[Victorian Premier] Daniel Andrews used him extensively in Victoria, but basically what you will find is Shorten is the conduit, he is able to link federal issues to a state election very well," Professor Stockwell said. Both Mr Shorten and Ms Plibersek are expected to attend the Labor campaign launch in Ipswich on Tuesday. But Mr Newman insisted Labor's leadership team still had questions to answer. "Tanya Plibersek, Mr Shorten got Australia into the financial mess that it's in right now," he said.

"I think when they roll into Queensland, that they should be asked some hard questions about how they will responsibly help, in a bipartisan way, Australia get back on to a stable financial footing. "They deserve nothing less. "Australians deserve nothing less to hear from Labor federally about how they would balance the federal Budget."