THE Queensland Premier is very likely to lose his seat at the next election and his party should already be looking for a new leader, a political analyst says.

Campbell Newman’s Liberal National Party government suffered an 18.6 per cent swing against it at Saturday’s by-election in the Brisbane-based seat of Stafford.

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Labor’s Anthony Lynham was always expected to win, but Griffith University political analyst Paul Williams says the LNP must have been shocked by the scale of the defeat.

He says it was even worse than the 17 per cent swing against the LNP at February’s Redcliffe by-election, which followed revelations about the dodgy business dealings of disgraced former MP Scott Driscoll.

“I see the LNP sneaking back home, but with Campbell Newman himself having been defeated,’’ Dr Williams told the ABC.

“They’ll have to have a leadership succession plan in place now, and not have a public bloodbath in March or April.’’

Dr Williams said he expected a statewide swing of 10 to 12 per cent against the LNP at the next election.

He said it wouldn’t be enough to make the LNP a one-term government, but it defied logic that Mr Newman could hang onto his Brisbane seat of Ashgrove.

“Given we’ve seen double-digit swings ... in the greater Brisbane area, the arithmetic just doesn’t add up for someone to hold a seat that’s on less than six per cent,’’ he said.

The loss in Stafford is a hit for Campbell Newman, who today retreated from some of the Government’s most controversial decisions following the LNP’s weekend annihilation in the Stafford by-election.

The strong choices asset sales plan will remain but Mr Newman has announced other controversial decisions will be scrapped.

Mr Newman emerged from this morning’s Cabinet meeting, flanked by his ministers and announced a series of changes designed to win voters back.

He said the need for bipartisan support for the next chair of the State’s crime and corruption watchdog would be reinstated, bikies will no longer be segregated or be forced to wear pink jumpsuits in jail, the parliamentary estimates process will revert back to its usual form and the government will seek meeting with judges in a bid to mend its fractured relationship with the judiciary.

“I just want to say I am sorry today if we have done things that have upset people. We will be doing a lot better in the future to try and explain our decisions and take Queenslanders with us,” Mr Newman said.

“Cabinet today has considered the feedback we were given by the Queensland people in the electorate of Stafford over the weekend.

“We have also considered the feedback that we’ve received from friends and colleagues and members of the community yesterday.

“We recognise that there are things that we have done that particularly have annoyed or upset Queenslanders and after a lot of discussion today, a lot of soul searching, we would like to formally announce a few things that we are going to do. “Essentially its about reversing a few decisions.

“In relation to the changes to the Crime and Corruption Commission, we are saying today that we will reinstate full bipartisan appointment of the chairman.

“One bit of feedback we’ve continued to have is that some of the arrangements we have put in place to deal with bikies who were incarcerated in the prison system,the corrections system, were not appropriate and we will be reversing those policy decisions. That involves uniform arrangements (pink jumpsuits) and indeed segregation arrangements inside the prison. The final issue is the relationship between the government and the legal profession and the judiciary.

“We acknowledge that there has been some bad blood there in recent times and I will be therefore seeking a meeting with the senior members of the leadership team and the Attorney-General and the heads of the legal profession and the judiciary, to sit down and really mend some fences, to actually sit down and very much recognise that we must work together for the good of all the people of this state. We must respect one another and I want to repair those relationships.”

On estimates, Mr Newman said a trial which saw all committee sitting at the same time over two days would not be repeated next year.

But he said asset sales would remain on the table.

“We believe that this is the only way in which to repair the state’s finances and to get the infrastructure that Queenslanders need,” he said.

Mr Newman left the door open to wind back other controversial decisions.

“We think we’ve had a really good look at it today,” he said.”It’s not to say that someone in the next day or two might say ‘well we should have a look at that” and I’m prepared to take that on board but we think these are thing that are particularly important, that have got up Queenslanders’ noses. We think these are things that they particularly want to see sorted out.

“They want us to have a good relationship with the judiciary, they want those sort of arguments to cease and desist and they want the focus of everyone to working for Queenslanders.”

The Courier-Mail had earlier revealed Cabinet would today discuss scrapping several of the most contentious elements of reforms to Queensland’s corruption watchdog and tough anti-bikie legislation.

The Queensland Premier spent yesterday briefing senior LNP MPs on his plans after the Government suffered a massive 18.6 per cent swing against it in Stafford.

It is understood the Government will reintroduce a bipartisan appointments process for the chair of the newly named Crime and Corruption Commission.

The controversial decision by Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie to remove the bipartisan parliamentary committee’s role in appointments was heavily condemned by former corruption inquiry head Tony Fitzgerald in one of his numerous salvos at the Newman Government.

Cabinet will also discuss removing some of the harshest aspects of the criminal motorcycle gang legislation that Mr Newman has repeatedly insisted he does not like but were an important weapon in the war against rebel bikies.

It is also understood Cabinet members have been assured there will be no reshuffle and each will fight on to the election and be tasked with better selling the Government’s achievements.

A senior Government source last night said Mr Newman had briefed colleagues that the Stafford result showed the Government’s pace and extent of reform had worried Queenslanders and they must now act.

“He has consulted his colleagues today and intends to take to Cabinet a number of measures to address those concerns,’’ the source said.

media_camera Premier Campbell Newman faces the media following a State Cabinet meeting at John Paul College today. Pic: Liam Kidston

Treasurer Tim Nicholls this morning told ABC Radio that the Government was reacting to the concerns of Queenslanders.

“I think it is an acknowledgment that there are concerns held in the broader community,’’ he said.

“We respond to the broader community’s concerns in these matters.

“What we want to make sure is that people see and have faith in the independence and effective strength in the CCC, the new Crime and Corruption Commission.”

Opposition leader Annastacia Palaszczuk Palaszczuk slammed the Newman government on 4BC this morning, saying they have failed to listen to the public’s concerns regarding the CCC until now.

“They’re following our lead but are they going to reinstate Liz Cunningham to be the chair of the parliamentary committee that they sacked?” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“Are they going to ensure that the other parliamentary commissioners are independently appointed as well?

“Response with integrity and accountability in a government is paramount and this government has failed to listen.”

Cabinet will also discuss asset sales but the Government remains staunchly behind the need to pay down debt and invest in infrastructure.

Labor candidate Anthony Lynham now holds the party’s safest seat after a mammoth swing against the LNP which surpassed the Redcliffe result of 17.1 per cent in February.

The Stafford outcome, just eight months before the general election, sent shock waves through the LNP and renewed fears over whether Mr Newman can retain his neighbouring electorate of Ashgrove which he holds by a margin of 5.7 per cent.

Mr Newman yesterday ruled out a reshuffle but said the Government has to do better at selling its achievements. “The issue is that Queenslanders perhaps don’t appreciate exactly the case that the state is starting to really move forward,” he said.