REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Monday, March 23, 2009

ANNA Bligh won the rumble over Carrara stadium hands down. Three-time loser Lawrence Springborg said he regretted not fighting a dirtier campaign but when it came to fighting fire with fire Ms Bligh delivered the knockout blow.

She defied every opinion poll to lead Queensland to a fifth consecutive Labor term, with a historic vote that handed her the honour of being Australia’s first

elected female premier.

And it was the LNP’s disastrous decision to attack Labor s funding of the Gold Coast s AFL stadium that proved to be the decider on the Gold Coast.

The LNP used the AFL stadium as a political football and ran its anti-stadium ads right across the state and even into far north Queensland.

But it cost them thousands of votes across the Gold Coast, a city that was crying out for a big job creation project and, going on the numbers, failed to give them any traction in other regional centres. Even Mr Springborg’s own Gold

Coast candidates tried to warn him it was a fight he wouldn’t win.

Labor suffered a 4 per cent swing across the state but retained a comfortable majority over the LNP.

Ms Bligh vowed to take up the gloves and clean up her Cabinet. She intended to hand-pick her own team, rather than fight with Labor’s factions, and the Gold Coast was tipped to pick up another Cabinet position. Mr Springborg was expected to step away from the fight for good, resigning his leadership in the party room.