The Campbell Newman experiment may have initially helped the LNP surge to an unprecedented victory, but it also hurt the party in the long run, Queensland's deputy premier says.
Jeff Seeney says Mr Newman's popularity as Brisbane's lord mayor helped him become Queensland's first premier from outside of parliament in 2012, but the Liberal National Party didn't realise how difficult the transition would actually be.
Mr Seeney, who's stepping down from his position for a new leadership team to take the LNP's reins, on Monday reflected on what went wrong for the party.
The LNP, which won a record 78 of 89 seats in 2012, has been completely blindsided by Saturday's election, which has put Labor in the box seat to form government, potentially even in its own right.
Mr Seeney also pointed to federal government issues, including the "nightmare" of Prime Minister Tony Abbott's decision to confer a knighthood on Prince Philip in the last week of the campaign.
"There's no question that federal issues leading up to the election campaign had a big impact on the attitude of the electorate," Mr Seeney said.
"There's also no question that the number of actions during the campaign took the focus of state issues for a number of days.
"The knighthood of the Duke of Edinburgh for example, those sorts of things for a campaign strategist were just a nightmare."
But Mr Seeney said a bigger factor was underestimating the challenge of bringing Mr Newman and his many staff from local government, given they weren't familiar with the norms and processes of the state tier.
"It led us to do things in a way that people did not believe was acceptable for a state government," Mr Seeney said.
He wouldn't give specific examples, telling reporters: "You'll have to wait for the book."
One of the biggest criticisms of Mr Newman during the campaign was his "arrogant" leadership style.
Mr Seeney said one of his biggest challenges as deputy was managing first-terms MPs who "didn't have a clue" what their roles required.
It was now a challenge that Labor would have to face, he said.
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