Bligh tries to move on from leadership debacle

Prime Minister Julia Gillard looks at a map of Queensland with Queensland Premier Anna Bligh in the Prime Minister's office.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard looks at a map of Queensland with Queensland Premier Anna Bligh in the Prime Minister’s office.

The federal leadership debacle has continued to dog Premier Anna Bligh a day after Queenslander Kevin Rudd lost the ballot to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Ms Bligh spent the first half of her interview on Channel Ten’s The Circle this morning talking about how the leadership spill was affecting the campaign.

She said it was dominating the conversation.

“It’s been an extraordinary first week for a campaign and what it’s done is made it very difficult for Queenslanders to listen to what I’m saying to listen to what my opponent is saying,” she said.

“So I’m very pleased it’s been put to bed, put to bed very decisively and hopefully we can get on and have a Queensland campaign because I think that’s what Queensland people deserve.”

Ms Bligh said she expected to see lots of federal MPs on the Queensland campaign trail in the coming weeks and Mr Rudd would be among them.

But she still had not spoken to him since he lost the leadership ballot yesterday.

She said Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan had already been on the trail and Ms Gillard would be campaigning with her in the coming weeks.

“These are good Labor people and they want to see my government elected,” she said.

Ms Bligh was then able to move on to issues in the upcoming state election.

She spoke in broad terms about the tough decisions she had made, saying these had put Queensland in a good position for the future.

“When you’re in government you’ve got to make decisions and every time you make a decision you find some people who don’t agree with it,” she said.

“I’ve made some pretty hard decisions here for Queensland but where we are now is in the strongest position to lead the country, strongest economy, highest jobs growth, lowest elective surgery waiting list, we’ve made some huge leaps and bounds despite the fact that we’ve been hit by the GFC [global financial crisis] then hit by those disasters.”

She used the end of the interview to spruik Labor’s Mines for Minds policy, saying it was going to give Queensland children a competitive edge.

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