An election was due by March but Mr Newman returned from his Christmas holidays early and visited the acting governor and chief justice Tim Carmody this morning.
Recent opinion polls indicate the government is level with the Labor opposition and Mr Newman could lose his own inner-Brisbane seat of Ashgrove.
The March 2012 election saw the LNP defeat Labor in a landslide victory, winning 78 out of 89 seats, and Mr Newman made history by running as party leader and being elected from outside parliament.
The LNP has since lost five MPs after three defected to minor parties and two quit parliament, one over policy disagreements and the other after misleading parliament over a financial scandal.
Opposition leader Annastacia Palaszczuk will try to claw back power from the nine seats Labor holds.
Central to the election campaign will be the LNP’s platform to raise $33 billion through the privatisation of ports and power utilities to reduce Queensland’s debt and pay for infrastructure spending.
The government will also campaign on the success of its contentious anti-gang laws targeting bikies and the restructuring of the health system.
Mr Newman has not said how prime minister Tony Abbott would contribute to his campaign.
Since taking office, LNP government has been dogged a series of controversies including a substantial MP pay rise while claiming the previous Labor government left a debt crisis, threats to cut doctors’ wages, a dispute with the legal fraternity over judicial appointments, cuts to workers’ compensation and the threatened listing of the Great Barrier Reef as “endangered” by UNESCO.
Labor will campaign on the government’s deep public service and job cuts, slow economic growth and a decade-high unemployment rate of 6.9 per cent.
The opposition has taunted the LNP over what their back-up plan is if Mr Newman loses his seat.
It also promises to roll-back controversial changes made by the LNP to refocussed the Crime and Corruption Commission, the watchdog set up after the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption that brought down the Joh Bjelke-Petersen National Party government in the 1980s.
A number of minor parties will contest seats across the state but they have had little influence during the current term due to the LNP’s large majority.
Katter’s Australian Party currently has three MPs and Palmer United Party has none in parliament after its last MP and state leader quit to run as an independent.
The Greens have never won a seat in Queensland.
Controversial former federal MP and serial candidate Pauline Hanson has rejoined One Nation after 12 years to stand in seat of Lockyer.
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