Lawrence Springborg could be onto a winner with his plan to investigate a proposal to ban corporate and union donations, one of the state's leading political pundits said.
Senior lecturer in journalism and politics at Griffith University Paul Williams, who predicted the change of government at the last election, said the LNP review recommendations, if enacted correctly, could be enough for the party to rebuild voter trust.
Among the 39 recommendations Joan Sheldon and Rob Borbidge put forward in their review into why the LNP was voted out of government after just one term was a commitment to adhere to the principles that broken promises and corruption would not be tolerated by the public and MPs and candidates should not be "directly involved in the soliciting of funds".
The report's last recommendation takes that one step further, suggesting donations from corporate entities and trade unions should be banned altogether.
Mr Springborg advocated seeing the donation ban made a reality. The issue dogged the LNP throughout its term in office, with expensive fundraisers and ministers and MPs involvement in them a regular headline headache for the former government.
Dr Williams said voters would be on board.
"The public seems to be accepting of this," he said.
"It obviously winces when it thinks, 'oh, taxpayer funded elections', taxpayer funded political parties', but I think they wince even more when they think political parties are too close to both big business and trade unions.
"We know that both those things are unsavoury, that both those things voters reject.
"So I think if we had a system where there were no corporate donations at all, and no union donations, only individuals could donate, I don't think the public would be too angry about that, I think they would be quite accepting about that and I think it is probably on the cards.
"Whether it happens on this parliament or the next, I think it will happen."
And with a change in government only a "by-election away", Dr Williams believes neither party can afford to take any voters for granted.
"All bets are off," he said.
"I wouldn't be surprised if there is a vote of no confidence in the Palaszczuk Government before the three years are up and there is no guarantee that Billy Gordon would support it.
"I think they are just as vulnerable today as they were the day after the election.
"The next six months are Labor's to stuff up, it theirs to lose. Curtis Pitt has to get the budget right.
"The LNP are literally only a by-election away from government, if they won a by-election, I am sure they could talk the Katter boys around, so Springborg should be the towering figure in the parliament, clawing at Palaszczuk's job, and he is not."
But first, Dr Williams said, the LNP needed to work out how it planned on moving forward.
"We've seen when parties have lost government before, not just in Queensland, but interstate and federally, we've seen party insiders write these sorts of reports before and they say similar things such as re-engagement with the community, pick the right candidates, consult, these sorts of parenthood statements we have seen over the last couple of decades, since politics became more volatile in the 90s, so in that sense it is not new," he said.
"The review is saying everything it should say, but is it just rhetoric or are they really going to act on it, and if so, how?
"I am sure they have good intentions, but how do they execute it?"
