"Terribly disappointed."
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That was how Parkes MP Mark Coulton felt about the Queensland election result that saw Premier Campbell Newman concede his seat and Labor poised to move into government.
"When Campbell Newman came as premier after Anna Bligh, Queensland was in a very poor financial situation with a massive debt," he said.
"The Newman government had made a lot of progress in turning that around.
"But it seems that politics is just played on personalities.
"I'm disappointed people couldn't see past their personal dislike of the premier and see what was good for the state."
There was no doubt the Queensland election result had ramifications and a flow-on effect nationally, Mr Coulton said.
"There's no denying we should be looking at what happened in Queensland, but the issue remains, do we continue to try to get the economy back on track and get Australia back to a position of being a leading global economy, or do we pull out the populist policies and leave the debt for our children and grandchildren, because that's what they did in Queensland.
"My personal belief is perhaps we need a more effective way of explaining to the Australian people the reasons for these decisions."
While the Queensland election result and criticism of the Prime Minister's decision to award Prince Philip a knighthood had very much put the focus on Tony Abbott's leadership and prompted speculation about a leadership spill, comments including those made by Liberal MP Jane Prentice at the weekend that the Liberal Party "can't continue" the way it is and whether or not Tony Abbott remains in leadership is a "discussion", were not helpful, according to Mr Coulton.
"I'm in the Nats so I don't get to choose the Liberal leader," he said.
"But it is fair to say the Prince Philip story ended up extending from a day to a whole week because of comments from colleagues."
Mr Coulton felt Mr Abbott was "a good leader who had shown courage".
"If it was up to me I wouldn't change the leadership, it didn't do Labor any good," he said.
"We've got another 18 to 20 months before the election so we need to just get on with the job."
Tough decisions would be made that might not necessarily make the federal government popular, Mr Coulton said.
"Issues such as reforming our Medicare system so it's sustainable, reforming tertiary education so we can afford to send our next generation of children there," he said.
"These things are done for the benefit of our children and grandchildren and they are decisions the previous Labor government did not make.
"At the moment we're paying $1 billion each month in interest, and we could go the populist way and not make the necessary changes but then our credit will be cut off, we'll be like Greece with massive unemployment, we won't be able to afford to pay our public servants. This is not rhetoric, it's basic facts."
Mr Abbott's speech to the National Press Club today would quite possibly be the most important speech of his career, according to Mr Coulton.
Watching that speech with interest would be Labor candidate for Dubbo, Stephen Lawrence, who believed the Queensland election result carried a message both federally and for NSW in particular as it headed towards its own state election in March.
"The key message from the Queensland election, the way I read it, is the public's rejection of the privatisation of essential services," he said.
"Everybody knows both sides of politics have privatised things in the past, but Labor has drawn a line about the role of government, and we will not privatise essential services, things like public hospitals and the distribution of electricity.
"I think the real impact of state issues and elections is seen federally when people perceive the state and federal governments are pushing the same agenda.
"A Queensland government pushing privatisation and a federal government that's pushing austerity and slashing of essential services such as Medicare. People perceive the same thing coming, the same attacks on ordinary people.
"In NSW we see the same policy issues. (NSW Premier) Mike Baird is a much more presentable and pleasant-appearing politician than Campbell Newman but their policies are so similar, and the same issues, such as will you as a government privatise electricity, will come up."