Bikie related drug crime was squashed and crime statistics improved dramatically.
Hospital queues were slashed and patients given a guarantee of treatment within time either in a public hospital, or paid by the state in a private one.
A $300M school maintenance backlog was cleared and exam results started to improve. Public housing waiting lists were cut by a third. Trains ran on time, and more frequently and construction of a congestion-busting cross-river public transport tunnel has begun.
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Business was delighted with the government's proactive stance and the pipeline of new projects is impressive.
But good policy is not necessarily good politics.
From the beginning the government had a communications problem, which emanated from its chaotic internal management processes.
Instead of having a strong central management team which controlled the agenda, and the message, ensuring that battles were fought on only one front at a time, the ground prepared in advance, and volleys coordinated; assaults were chaotic with the government seemingly in a war against all most of the time.
One of these wars was even with the state's judiciary.
This pattern was repeated during the election campaign.
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The government campaigned under the theme, "Strong Team, Strong Plan, Stronger Queensland" – an assertion which was never demonstrated to be true.
There was no compare and contrast with Labor's poor record.
There was also no attempt to rebut Labor's campaign, as often as not based around untruths – such as the claim that Newman had cut frontline services. In fact spending on health, education and police had increased over the period.
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