The president of Queensland's bruised and bloodied Liberal National Party says the Abbott government's woes dragged the party down.
Bruce McIver says he'll be "upset" if Prime Minister Tony Abbott uses his National Press Club speech on Monday to try to fix some of the federal problems he believes played into the state election result.
Mr McIver said there were "many" federal factors that were problematic for the LNP leading into the state poll, not the least of which was Mr Abbott's decision to confer a knighthood on Prince Philip in the last week of the campaign.
"The situation didn't help," he told the ABC on Sunday.
He expected that the prime minister will address some contentious issues in Monday's speech, two days after the election.
"That would be one thing that would upset me.
"I'll watch his speech on Monday very carefully to be honest."
He said the knighthood decision left him stunned.
"I was shocked. I would have rathered Wally Lewis get the gong."
But the LNP president said the Abbott factor was only one part of the equation.
He said the Queensland party would learn from the election result, but it was too early to say exactly what lessons it would take away.
"Queenslanders have told us things by this election," he said, promising an independent, external review.
Asked if he accepted there was a sense among voters that the Newman government was out of touch and arrogant, Mr McIver said: "Reforming governments have to take this sort of stuff on the chin."
"Campbell and his team had to do a lot of hard decisions. Whether those decisions were accepted by the people, or the way they were done was accepted by the people, is one of the things we'll be looking at."
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