Campbell Newman doesn't need to catch taxis or Ubers. Not until next year anyway. But for now Newman is the guy who'll decide whether you can choose between the competing services. Queensland, like pretty much everywhere the giant US ride sharing start-up operates, is a legal free fire zone. Uber might be legal here. It might not. You might be covered by insurance when you book an UberX ride. You might not. The government might be able to crush the net based disrupter. It might not.

The shrieking of entrenched interests is growing louder. The taxi councils (representing the interests of wealthy licence holders, not drivers or passengers) have begun to pour elephant bucks into the coffers of the governing parties. So too Cabcharge. Kicking in ten grand here, a hundred thousand there, it's a hell of a lot easier, and cheaper, than doing the hard work of reforming and updating your business model and practices.

Need a ride? Uber is the way to go, writes John Birmingham. Credit:Reuters

Uber, for its part, is relying for now on a crowd sourced response, emailing its local customers, including me, last week asking us to reach out to Newman on Twitter and via email and suggesting some talking points:

My Uber is 20-30 per cent cheaper than a taxi