Qld poll reaction: blame, shame and champagne

The extraordinary election result in Queensland prompted an outpouring of recrimination, congratulation and condemnation. Hereâs a selection of across-the-board reaction:
Annastacia Palaszczuk, Qld Labor leader: âWhoâd have thought three years ago that weâd be making history tonight. Itâs still too close to call, but Iâm hopeful that weâll be able to form a government.â
Campbell Newman, former Qld Premier: âMy political career is over ⌠The LNP will offer a strong and stable government or a very effective Opposition in the years to come.â
Tony Abbott, PM: âObviously there are lessons from the result in Queensland. The lessons are not to give up on reform but to make sure everything you propose is fully explained and well justifiedâŚI accept that we have some difficulties, (but) we have listened, we have learnt, we will be a more consultative and collegial government in 2015. We will not take the Senate for granted in 2015 as sometimes we were tempted to do in 2014.â
Warren Truss, deputy PM: âQueenslanders have now demonstrated a preparedness for volatility and I donât think any government anywhere can ever, after this result, consider themselves to be safe and that is a good message that all governments should learn.â
Jane Prentice, Qld Federal MP: âTony (Abbott) has said he has listened and learned. He is making a keynote speech on Monday at the press club [and] we canât continue as we are. We are not taking the people with us. We are getting bad feedback ⌠I think the members will look at the results tonight and they will take those to Canberra.â
Bill Shorten, Federal Labor leader: âIf Tony Abbott walks the plank, thatâs a cop out ⌠It is what Liberals are trying to sell Australia [that] is the problem.â
Tim Nicholls, Treasurer in the former Newman Government: âThere were certainly federal factors and there were less-than-helpful things. Raising discussion about the GST was something that certainly didnât help the campaign. The Medicare co-payment was again something that we didnât support as we didnât support raising the GST. Those factors I think did play a role.â
Warren Entsch, Qld Federal MP: âIâm going to have to look closely at the outcome of this ⌠Iâm bitterly disappointed.â
Darren Chester, Vic Federal MP: âNewsflash: polls are bad, âbetter sack the leaderâ because that worked so well for Labor didnât it? Time for cool heads to prevail.â
George Brandis, Attorney-General: âLetâs be frank, the government had a shocker of a week. The Prime Minister had a shocker of a week.â
Julia Gillard, former PM: âCongratulations to Annastacia and the Labor team on a hard fought, courageous campaign. You can rightly be proud of your efforts.â
Kevin Rudd, former PM: âAnastacia Palaszczuk, against all the odds, and despite all the detractors over the last three years, has delivered a stunning result in Qld.â
Peter Beattie, former Qld Premier:Â âNobody expected her (to win). If youâd have said a year ago, Annastacia was going to be in this position, if Iâd said this, I would have been carted off to the funny farm. Youâve got to admire her guts.â
Henry Palaszczuk, the Labor leaderâs father and a former Queensland Minister:Â âThe only person who thought that it could be a possibility was Annastacia.â
South Australian independent senator Nick Xenophon:Â âHeâs got a tin ear. The captainâs pick of Prince Philip was basically a fatal blow to his prime ministership. I think heâs got until the end of this week.â
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten:Â âIf they think itâs the salesman, not what theyâre selling, they will have learned nothing. Itâs the arrogance which really frustrates people.â
Greens leader Christine Milne:Â âItâs not just Tony Abbott, itâs the Abbott government policies that are the problem. They have to reject the cruel and arrogant way they have been leaning on the poor.â
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