Campbell Kevin Thomas Newman AO (born 12 August 1963) is an Australian former politician who served as the 38th Premier of Queensland from 26 March 2012 to 14 February 2015.

[4] On 10 February 2015, Newman submitted his resignation[5] and he was replaced as premier by Annastacia Palaszczuk four days later as Labor formed a minority government.

In July 2021, Newman resigned from the LNP, and in August 2021 announced he had joined the Liberal Democrats and would be standing as the party's lead Senate candidate in Queensland at the 2022 Australian federal election.

[1] Campbell Newman was born on 12 August 1963 in Canberra, to parents who later both represented Tasmania in the federal parliament and were both ministers in Liberal–National coalition governments.

[9] The most significant infrastructure item initiated or delivered during this first term was the TransApex package of bridge, traffic and tunnel projects.

[15] However, on 22 March, Newman announced that he was seeking the LNP preselection for the west Brisbane seat of Ashgrove, held by Labor's Kate Jones, in the election due for 2012.

[16] According to ABC News, the LNP's organisational wing wanted Newman to run for a state seat and the leadership when polls showed he was the only non-Labor politician who matched Premier Anna Bligh's popularity during the 2010–11 Queensland floods.

Langbroek had been under growing pressure from the LNP's organisational wing to stand down after Labor's polling numbers rebounded in the wake of the floods.

[22] Newman's ascent to the role of leader outside of Parliament led Bligh to briefly consider breaking her previous vow to let the legislature run full-term.

On 18 July 2011, the Crime and Misconduct Commission announced that the investigation found no evidence to support Fraser's allegations and all parties were cleared.

[31] On 30 May 2021, Newman was made one of the LNP's trustees, a party elder position that is involved in finances and has a seat on the state executive.

It is understood that the acting LNP President, Cynthia Hardy, approached Newman about the role, to which he was then elected in a vote of state executive.

[32] On 25 January 2012, Bligh announced that a state election would be held in Queensland on 24 March, but that she would not formally ask the Governor to dissolve parliament until 19 February.

On 15 March 2012, Bligh referred to the Crime and Misconduct Commission material concerning an office in a building owned by interests associated with Newman's family.

Despite allegations of inappropriate dealings for personal benefit, a week before the election the CMC finalised its assessment that there was no evidence of official misconduct by Newman while he was Lord Mayor of Brisbane.

It was easily the worst defeat a sitting government has ever suffered in Queensland, and one of the most lopsided election results ever recorded at the state level in Australia.

Normal practice in Australia calls for a defeated government to stay in office on a caretaker basis until the final results are in.

However, the day after the election, with the LNP's victory beyond doubt even though counting was still under way in several seats, Bligh announced she was resigning as premier and retiring from politics.

[39] The last Liberal premier of Queensland, Gordon Chalk, served as a caretaker between the death of Jack Pizzey in 1968 and the election of Joh Bjelke-Petersen later that year.

[40] On 29 March, Newman announced his support for newly elected Labor leader Annastacia Palaszczuk's proposal to extend the parliamentary term in Queensland to four years, as is the case in the other states.

[41] In January 2013, Newman announced plans to push for Queensland to allow optional preferential voting in federal elections.

[46] In October 2013 the Newman government passed new legislation which handed discretionary powers to the state Attorney-General to indefinitely extend the detention of sex offenders.

[54] On 7 April 2014, the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption heard that Newman wanted $5,000 to meet Sydney businessman Nick Di Girolamo when he was the Lord Mayor of Brisbane.

With his defeat in Ashgrove beyond doubt even though counting had not been finalised, Newman announced his retirement from politics on election night.

A week after his 2015 state election defeat it was revealed that Newman, while still caretaker premier, was approached to stand for Liberal preselection for the federal seat of Indi in Victoria.

Newman criticised the major parties for the use of "heavy-handed" measures he says are responsible for "the destruction of people's livelihoods, jobs and freedoms" during the COVID-19 pandemic.