QUEENSLAND Premier Peter Beattie has admitted he "stuffed-up" by legislating to stop referendums on controversial council mergers after an opinion poll revealed most Queenslanders wanted a say on the issue.

Citing new government-commissioned research which found 52 per cent of Queenslanders believed referendums should be held on the mergers, Mr Beattie said his Government had been too heavy handed in its approach to the issue.

Prime Minister John Howard last week introduced legislation to override the Queensland laws but the Bill will not be passed by the Senate until next month, meaning councils that hold votes in the meantime were risking the sack.

However, the state's Local Government Minister Andrew Fraser yesterday declined to sack a central Queensland shire that hosted a vote on the issue and Mr Beattie said others were now free to hold referendums of their own, using federal money.

“We will obviously pull back from any measures that would stop councils having a vote,” Mr Beattie said.

“If they want to have a protest vote they're entitled to do it, if they want to take advantage of John Howard's money they can,” he said.

“If John Howard wants to use money out of Sydney and Melbourne to fund those polls then so be it.”

Mr Howard said his intervention last week had forced Mr Beattie's hand.

“If my Government had not acted as we did, Mr Beattie would have continued to act in an arbitrary jack-booted fashion, trampling over the rights of the people of Queensland,” Mr Howard said.

Mr Beattie said the government-commissioned ACNielsen poll also showed most Queenslanders were in favour of local government reform while half supported the boundary changes passed through state parliament this month.

The poll found 73 per cent of the 1000 people surveyed state wide believed stronger council boundaries were needed to deal with population growth.

Respondents were split, however, on the boundary changes as recommended by an independent commission with 50 per cent in support and 48 per cent against.

Mr Beattie said he was delighted with the poll results which he claimed showed the community believed the Government had “got it right” by intervening to force the mergers.

“We are sticking to the boundaries as law, the amalgamations will go ahead, they will not change, he said.

“We are certain now that Queenslanders support it.”

Opposition Leader Jeff Seeney dismissed the figures and said the government had fashioned the questions in a biased way to get the answers it wanted.

Mr Seeney said questions such as `Do you think councils need to be strengthened?' were a case of push polling.

“It's a bit like asking people whether they love their mother, of course you're going to say yes to that,” Mr Seeney said.

“For Mr Beattie to come out this morning and claim that somehow or other the poll justifies this decision is breathtakingly dishonest.”

News Limited