All considerations of aspirational nationalism aside, one of the nicer aspects of federalism is the comparative lack of distance between citizens and their government, and the lack of pretension and pomp Ministers have. At least in Queensland.

By way of illustration, I ran into the now former Premier, Peter Beattie, on William Street a few years back when I was doing a consultancy for the Queensland government and we had a bit of a natter. He was walking back from Parliament to the Executive building and accompanied by only one security guard. It wasn’t that I knew him well, but that he recognised my face (probably from Labor Party functions a decade before when I was a member). Good priests and politicians famously always remember a face, even if the name eludes them, but it took me a little while to realise he’d addressed me as “mate” rather than “Mark”.

On another occasion, he offered some friends of mine a lift back home from a Jello Biafra gig, of all things. The concert was on at the Convention Centre at Southbank and finished around the same time some Labor Party nosh-up ended. My mates and Beattie both lived at Windsor, so he was anxious to save them a cab fare. They were quite shocked that shouting out “Hey Pete, we live near you, can we have a ride?” would produce a positive response! Needless to say, stories like this travel quickly around what is in many ways still a small town.

Though he’s often been derided as a media tart and a shameless populist, Beattie is a superb politician with a genuine common touch. There’s an element of calculation in his “hail fellow, well met” persona, but conversely it’s not a pretence but an accentuation of the personality of the man himself. That big grin is genuine, even if it’s a bit of a knowing smile as well.

Interestingly, and there must be some serendipity along with the pollen in the Brisbane spring air, I’ve crossed paths with Deputy Premier Anna Bligh twice in the last week. On Saturday afternoon, I saw her and her husband shopping in the Broadway shopping centre on the Queen Street Mall. I thought at the time Anna looked remarkably happy and relaxed.

Perhaps she knew something we didn’t until a couple of hours ago.

When Beattie announced to the Labor Party Conference recently that he’d contemplate leaving office before the middle of 2008, he very pointedly contrasted his ability to know when his time was up with John Howard’s inability to know when to let go.

Beattie only held on in last year’s Queensland election through a superb campaign and the implosion of the opposition (in particular the Liberal Party who’d unwisely switched leaders just before Beattie pulled the starting trigger). He knew, and he knows today, that Queenslanders had tired of his switch and bait “someone else broke it, I’m sorry, I’ll fix it” tactics.

For once, the claim that a leader would like to spend more time with his family is true. Heather Beattie has made no secret of her desire for her husband to move on. There’s unlikely to be any move into the federal arena, at least in the near future. A keen student of labour history, Beattie knows the omens from long ago in the past when both T. J. Ryan and “Red Ted” Theodore tried to parlay their dominance of Queensland politics into federal success aren’t happy ones.

Beattie’s decision contains only electoral positives for Labor. Anna Bligh will be a popular Premier who’ll reinvigorate the state government, and Beattie’s departure will short circuit Howard’s opportunistic local council amalgamation moves. All the negatives that Beattie carries after nearly a decade in office that may have stuck to federal Labor are gone in a flash. Though they’re famously not close friends, Kevin Rudd has a lot to thank Peter Beattie for today.

And Beattie, a master of timing, has shone a spotlight on Howard’s lengthy and now shaky leadership just when it’s not wanted. Beattie has picked his moment well, and gone out with some consummate style.