Recent results, including Newspoll and ReachTEL polls, reveal the public perception of Mr Newman’s performance has become ‘personalised’. Distinctions are no longer made between how poll respondents view Mr Newman personally and how he is seen to be doing his job.

While the government’s primary vote rate fluctuated between Newspolls – 44 per cent in June 2013, 40 per cent in December 2013, 40 per cent in March 2014 and 32 per cent in the most recent June poll, the premier’s dissatisfaction rate continued to grow – 46 per cent in June 2013, 48 per cent in December that year, 54 per cent by the next poll in March and 57 per cent in June 2014.

Fresh from holidays, the premier reminded people of his role in the Brisbane’s floods, the Gap storms and Bundaberg’s floods.

“I’m the guy who got us through the Brisbane floods, The Gap storms in 2008, made sure that the people of Bundaberg were looked after, particularly got those people off those rooftops,” Mr Newman said.

“That is the sort of strong leadership you get from Campbell Newman and you will continue to get from Campbell Newman - whether it is dealing with disasters either man-made or natural - man-made of course being the ones that the Labor Party has created.”

Satisfaction with leaders ebbs and flows with public mood – an unpopular policy can lead to a dropped approval rating. But while some leaders, such as John Howard and Peter Beattie, saw approval ratings drop in response to policies, satisfaction in how they were seen to be doing their job remained high.

Others, such as Julia Gillard and Anna Bligh, experienced simultaneous drops in both personal satisfaction levels and the public’s perception of how they were doing their job.

In the last quarter, in answer to ‘how would you describe Campbell Newman as Premier of Queensland’, in a Working for Queenslanders-commissioned ReachTEL poll, the answer ‘very poor premier’ garnered the most votes – 33 per cent in April compared to 19 per cent ‘very good’, 34 per cent in May (16 per cent ‘very good) and 35 per cent last month, compared to 14 per cent at the other end of the scale.

Senior lecturer in politics and journalism at Griffith University, Paul Williams, said the data suggested only “rusted on conservative voters” continued to back the government.

“Therefore, the government has much to worry about,” he said.

“All Labor voters who flirted with LNP appeared to have deserted the government, as, it seems, did every swinging voter.

“The only good news for the LNP is that some of that will come back via PUP preferences - hence the 49 per cent two-party preferred - and the fact the LNP primary vote won't slip any further.”

Dr Williams said the close link between the party vote and leadership approval “was to be expected”, as “in this age of relatively shallow media coverage of politics, voters, more than ever, see leaders as the embodiment of their parties”.

Director of Campaign Research for Working for Queenslanders, which is funded by the Together Union, Scott Steel agreed.

“Heads of government in the current political era, be it premiers or prime ministers, don't just lead the government. As far as voter perceptions and voting intentions go, they are the government. As their fortunes go, so too go the fortunes of the government they lead,” he said.

“Why that occurs and why it has intensified over the last seven years or so is a bit of a thesis - but it's mostly to do with the change in the media cycle, and the way the political response to it has been to make the leader more presidential in their stature when it comes to the projection of the government to voters.”

Dr Williams said this meant “if things go wrong ... leaders get disproportionate blame” and reiterated that next year’s election could see Queensland facing a hung parliament.

“Virtually every Labor seat the LNP won in South East Queensland, that's under 10 per cent margin will be lost back to Labor, and quite a few safer seats outside the south-east are also in danger,” he said.

“A 14 per cent swing equals 40 seats - which is highly unlikely to happen.

“But a 10 to 12 per cent uniform swing is on the cards and just a 10.2 per cent uniform swing equates to 29 seats and after Stafford that would mean a minority government.”

But it also means that Queensland risks heading into an election once again asking who would lead the LNP if poor polling translates into the Premier losing his seat.

A Together Union commissioned poll showed that 76 per cent of respondents believed they had the right to know what would happen if the seat of Ashgrove fell outside the LNP.

Mr Newman said he remained focused on "cleaning up Labor's mess".

“We have had a big job over the last two years. We were elected to sort out a mess that Labor created and we have been doing that,” Mr Newman said on Sunday.

“We have made a lot of tough decisions, a lot of strong decisions, some important decisions.

“And we have had some fights. But those fights have been about fixing things up for Queenslanders.

“... I know there has been a bit of focus on me in the past week.''

Mr Newman accepted not everyone liked his leadership style.

“You might not like some of the things that we have done,” he said on Sunday after launching the LNP’s Stafford candidate Bob Andersen’s bid for Stafford on July 19.

“We respect that. We will try and listen more, but this is the only team with strong leadership, you won’t get it from the Labor Party.”

Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk shrugged off Mr Newman’s comments about Labor, saying she was committed to winning the Stafford by-election, while doorknocking with Labor’s candidate Anthony Lynham.

"This is a very, very tough battle we are in,” she said.

“We have eight members and I need Dr Lynham here to be our ninth member.

"My focus is on bringing Queensland together where we can restore integrity and accountability back into our Queensland government."

The Stafford by-election will be held on July 19.

Former Speaker – retired Labor MP John Mickel – estimated a traditional by-election swing was about 6.6 per cent, just under Stafford’s 7.1 per cent margin.

Mr Newman described deputy premier Jeff Seeney’s comments that the LNP may have done too much too quickly as “musings on what had happened”.

“What I say is look at the results,” Mr Newman said.

“The results speak for themselves with better performing hospitals, the health payroll debacle being sorted out, an economy that is the envy of the rest of the nation,” he said.

“Over half of the nation’s jobs in the last 12 months were created in Queensland yet we are only one-fifth of the nation’s population.

“The results speak for themselves and I am confident that over the next six to nine months we will be able to effectively demonstrate to Queenslanders even better improvements to those things.”

Mr Newman on Sunday unveiled the government’s latest Six Month Action Plan for July to December 2014, revealing some strategies for the next six months.

It include releasing the government’s response to the Queensland Plan, launching a Queensland-wide State Infrastructure Plan, releasing a Beef Industry Action Plan and finally, opening a new Trade and Investment office in Jakarta.

That decision was approved in June 2013.