Currumbin2Cook

Beattie concedes nothing

Well, he wouldn't, would he, when he's just won. But perhaps he could have taken a leaf from Lawrence Springborg's play book, and told it like it really is. He sort of alluded to the fact that voters wanted neither side to run the government when he said that his government had been given "one more chance" to fix the problems. That's why he said there was no protest vote.

The crowd in the tally room certainly knew he hadn't won, but that the opposition had lost. I've been to a few of these now, and the winners are normally much more ecstatic. "Subdued" is the way that the Labor crowd was this evening.

Beattie himself was sombre, but the words misaligned with what voters know about why they voted as they did.

It would have been a better start to his fourth term if he had fessed up completely.

Another slightly off-note was when he said that the Coalition would have done better with Quinn as Liberal Leader. Better to have left it alone, true though it possibly is.

The premier also had an appreciation of the way three high profile deaths - Brock, Irwin, and Springborg's father-in-law - had aided his campaign. When he was asked whether he might run for federal parliament he said that if he did there would be a state funeral "because my wife would kill me."