Premier Anna Bligh has urged Queenslanders to hold their nerve and stick with Labor, firing the official election campaign starter gun as another poll showed challenger Campbell Newman’s message of change was strongly resonating.

Mr Newman today called on voters to turf out Labor MPs, saying they had been part of a crisis-prone government and Queenslanders should not “let them hide” when casting ballot papers.

After visiting Governor Penelope Wensley to formally request a March 24 election, Ms Bligh characterised herself as a tough-times premier whose decisions had not always been politically popular but had helped the state “bounce back” after the global financial crisis and the natural disasters.

However, Mr Newman, the LNP leader who does not yet hold a seat in Parliament but is pledging to get the state “back on track”, said the government had lurched from crisis to crisis.

He insisted his candidates were not complacent as the latest opinion poll showed his party held a 60 per cent to 40 per cent lead in the two-party-preferred stakes.

Leadership distractions

But as the leaders headed to the key Ashgrove electorate to push their main election messages, Mr Newman and Ms Bligh were both dogged by different types of leadership issues.

Ms Bligh weighed in on the ongoing speculation about leadership tension between Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the man she deposed in 2010, Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd.

The Premier said people were becoming “pretty sick and tired” with the ongoing federal Labor leadership speculation and she believed her colleagues in Canberra should “put this to bed, one way or the other”.

"I'm not going to speculate about how the federal party should resolve the leadership issue," she said. "I just say to them ' get on with it, fix it.'"

Ms Bligh would not say whether she supported Ms Gillard or Mr Rudd for the leadership, but said the leadership issues would not help her re-election prospects.

"Queensland election campaigns often have wildcards in them. We're starting on Day 1 with a pretty big wildcard from the federal government and frankly I'd like it resolved," she said.

Mr Newman continued to face questions over who would be premier if he failed to win the seat of Ashgrove but the LNP won government, as Labor continued to focus on this issue.

Mr Newman, who is not yet a state MP, needs a 7.1 per cent swing to win Ashgrove from Labor’s Kate Jones, while the LNP needs about a 4.6 per cent swing to take office.

It is technically possible for the LNP to win the election, but for its leader, Mr Newman, to not win a seat.

He was continually asked if the LNP had a “Plan B” to get him into state parliament if he did not win Ashgrove.

Mr Newman refused to speak of any alternative, saying he was confident Ashgrove voters would make the right decision and vote for change.

“I am very confident that they understand what is at stake,” he said.

“They will vote for change I believe because that is the message I am getting on the street, but that’s their call and I think that is what they are going to do.”

Speaking at Ashgrove Golf Club flanked by most of the LNP's Brisbane candidates, Mr Newman repeatedly said that he was “all fired up” and confident people in the Ashgrove electorate "would not get it wrong".

Game on

Ms Bligh earlier visited Government House to ask Ms Wensley to dissolve Parliament and issue the writs for an election to be held in five weeks' time.

Leaving the Paddington property after a 25-minute visit, Ms Bligh said she was "absolutely" looking forward to the election battle.

"Looking forward to it, the 24th of March," she said as her car left the building.

Ms Bligh's action means the government today entered caretaker mode, as the formal election campaign begins.

The opposition Liberal National Party, which holds 31 seats at present, needs to win at least 14 additional seats to win government in its own right.

Labor holds 51 seats and will lose its parliamentary majority if at least seven seats fall.

Both Ms Bligh and LNP challenger Campbell Newman have predicted it will be a tough fight, but opinion polls show the LNP holds a clear lead and is widely expected to win.

After calling the 2009 election, Ms Bligh held her first election campaign media conference at the Executive Building in the city.

This time around, however, Ms Bligh attended an event in the Ashgrove electorate - where Ms Jones is battling to hold onto the seat Mr Newman needs to win if his unorthodox path to power is to succeed - to outline the key messages of her re-election campaign.

Bligh's pitch

Ms Bligh said Queensland had recovered from the natural disasters and the effects of the global financial crisis, and was on the cusp of an economic boom.

She said the Labor government had the vision, ideas and programs to take the state forward and urged voters not to risk a divided LNP.

"Now is not the time to throw that away. Now is the time to stick with me, stick with our program."

Ms Bligh denied her government had run out of ideas, saying her plan to channel 50 per cent of liquified natural gas royalties into an education trust fund was "one of the biggest ideas in education in this country in two decades."

Ms Bligh was asked to explain how voters could trust her this time, after she announced asset sales and the scrapping of the fuel subsidy following the 2009 election.

“On election night 2009 I said to Queenslanders that you can count on me,” she said.

“And then we went into the biggest global financial crisis the world had seen, and look, we’re out the other side of it with... one of the strongest economies in the country.

“I had to make some tough decisions, I know you didn’t like all of them, but they were the rights ones for Queensland, even if they weren’t the right ones for me politically.

"I said you could count on me Queenslanders, and look where we are today. One of the strongest economies in the country, bouncing back after the worst-ever disasters, a very strong place to be – the envy of Australia.”

Ms Bligh said her campaign would be based around people. She would be travelling around the state to share her message of why voters should stick with Labor.

Newman's pitch

Mr Newman, who was last year chosen as the LNP leader despite not yet holding a seat in State Parliament, rejected suggestions the party may be complacent given positive opinion polling.

The latest Newspoll published in The Weekend Australian yesterday had the LNP at 58 per cent to Labor’s 42 on a two-party-preferred basis. A Galaxy poll in The Sunday Mail today put the LNP’s lead at 60-40.

An upbeat Mr Newman urged Queensland voters to search out “hiding” Labor MPs and deliberately vote them out of office.

Mr Newman urged voters to specifically look for ALP candidates, who he said were avoiding the ALP brand and marketing themselves as stand-alone candidates, while standing in front of 20 or so of the LNP’s candidates for the 2012 poll.

“On election day on March 24th, please look for that Labor member, look for their name and don’t let them hide,” Mr Newman said.

“They are trying right now to hide, they are trying to pretend that they were not part of this government.

“Look for their name. Look for the Party and say, ‘No, not this time. No way. Not another three years.’”

Mr Newman said he had already launched 50 policies and would provide more “flesh on the bones” as the campaign moved on, including detailing when the LNP would bring the state budget back to surplus.

Labor has repeatedly attacked the LNP, saying it had racked up billions of dollars in promises without yet saying how the commitments would be funded.

Mr Newman repeated yesterday's announcement that Len Scanlan, Queensland’s former auditor general, would cost and sign off on the LNP's policies during the campaign.

Mr Newman began his campaign opening with a phrase that will become the LNP’s mantra for the 2012 state election campaign.

“It is time for a change and it is time to get Queensland back on track,” Mr Newman said.

“And ladies and gentleman, that is exactly what this election is all about.”

He also rejected suggestions his candidates did not have the experience to be in government.

“I think what people are asking from a new government in Queensland is fresh ideas and a lack of this tired Labor focus on politics,” he said.

He said Labor was focussing on itself, not on the people of Queensland.

“And fine, some of them [LNP candidates] might not know the finer points of parliament or procedures, but what they will be doing is bring this fresh enthusiasm to bring this state back on track.”

with AAP

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