Borbidge made little headway as Opposition Leader against Beattie. The Coalition reaped no benefit when One Nation imploded, or when an inquiry ended the careers of several Labor MPs—including Deputy Premier Jim Elder. Before the 2001 state election, Borbidge, remembering what happened three years earlier, promised that the Coalition would never preference One Nation again. However, several of his own MPs reneged on that promise after the writs were dropped. Beattie seized on this, arguing that this proved a Coalition government would only survive with the support of One Nation and former One Nation MPs. At the 17 February election, the Coalition saw its seat count more than halved, to 17 seats. Notably, it lost all but one seat in Brisbane. Amid this severe defeat, Borbidge created controversy when he immediately resigned from parliament, forcing a by-election in Surfers Paradise. The Nationals felt the brunt of voter backlash at going back to the polls for the second time in three months; their primary vote collapsed to eight percent, resulting in the election of independent member Lex Bell in the traditionally safe National seat.