PM has learnt from Newman's defeat

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he has learned a valuable lesson from the Liberal National Party's defeat in Queensland at last month's election.

Mr Abbott told Fairfax Radio he thought former premier Campbell Newman had done "a very good job for the people of Queensland".

However, he accepted Newman's combative style of governing was not popular.

"Yes it was a pretty bad result," Mr Abbott said of the election outcome, which saw the LNP swept from office and Newman losing his seat.

"But you don't get to be the leader of a political party, you don't get to be the Prime Minister without being a quick learner and every day I am determined that this government will be a better government."

Mr Abbott is in Brisbane on Wednesday for a sod-turning ceremony at Hummingbird House, which will be Queensland's only children's hospice.