We made some dud decisions, admits Campbell Newman

Former Queensland premier Campbell Newman admits he made some dud political decisions.

Mr Newman says he started his reform program far too quickly after coming to power in March 2012.

But he claims the political and media environment at the time made it almost impossible to have a proper conversation with the community about his tough decisions.

"We made some dud decisions," the former premier told the ABC's 7.30 program.

"They were dud politically, but they were in the best interests of Queenslanders."

Mr Newman said politics had changed for the worse and the focus was now overwhelmingly on personalities rather than actual policy.

"It gets into this territory of the quite sustained attacks on those personalities," he said.

"The shelf life of political leaders seems to be diminishing."

He said Tony Abbott, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard "all got a bad run".

But the former premier was particularly shocked by broadcaster Alan Jones' treatment of former prime minister Julia Gillard.

"The way Julia Gillard was treated by Alan Jones was totally unacceptable," Mr Newman said.

"How dare somebody refer to the prime minister of the country in those ways, in that way that he did on a number of occasions."

Mr Newman's book is due to be released next week.