From today’s Crikey email:
Queensland Nationals will have been carefully studying the results of the Victorian election last week. The Nats have picked up at least one seat and, even more importantly, vastly improved their primary vote. And they’ve done it with a level of “product differentiation” from the Libs which has been accurately characterised as “hatred”.
Veteran Senator and Nats Senate Leader, Ron Boswell, faces the preselectors on Saturday. He has the fulsome endorsement of John Howard, but the Prime Minister’s claim that “Ron is no lackey of the Liberals” may not cut the mustard with the Queensland party. State parliamentarians and office-holders have made no secret of the fact that they’d like Boswell to step down, and in fact the Senator himself promised last time he scraped through his last preselection that this would be his last term.
The Nats’ new state leader, Jeff Seeney, has previously commented that “new blood” is needed in the Senate.
While a number of high profile candidates including former Premier Rob Borbidge, former leader Lawrence Springborg and AMA President and son of Joh’s Deputy Premier Bill Glasson have all declined to run, retired army officer James Baker is seen as being the Barnaby Joyce candidate.
Boswell is making much both of his links to producer interest groups and his defeat of Pauline Hanson in 2001. He’s the only candidate who can hold the seat, he argues. But this is to ignore the context of his victory over Hanson. Many Brisbane voters crossed over from other parties to vote for Boswell as a tactical strike against One Nation. His victory wasn’t resounding, and the state Liberals will again not run a joint ticket. With Liberals leaking claims that Seeney asked them to sign a loyalty oath this week, current Coalition relations can be described as appalling.
There’s a crowded field for the preselection ballot, bizarrely including Mary McCormick, 25, whose platform highlights same-sex rights. She’s from the Farmer Dave Big Brother Nats faction. Baker, 39, though, is seen as the 65-year-old Senator’s major opponent. National Party sources are claiming the numbers are anyone’s guess, but Central Council members will no doubt be hearing a lot from Barnaby about the vigorous anti-Liberal stance taken by the Victorian Nats.
And it’s interesting to note that the proxy rules which Boswell exploited in his favour last time around (securing a proxy from the dying Bjelke-Petersen) have now been tightened up. John Howard will have a lot riding on the contest between the Coalitionist Boswell and the potential bomb-thrower Baker.
Why on earth do you think that Howard’s endorsement is fulsome?
BBB
There’s more to it. Google around for the source. Howard obviously would prefer Boswell back to a Barnaby clone.
Jeff Seeney might have got it a bit wrong about where the new blood is needed. He has spent the past two days ‘Doing a Debnam’. He was officially censured by the Queensland Parliament today for throwing mud under Parliamentary Privelege with absolutely no credible evidence to back it up. It was the rowdiest session of parliament I have seen since the Joh era. Maybe the new blood is urgently needed at the state level.
Even the Independents would not have a bar of his mudthrowing and Peter Wellington the Member for Nicklin was particularly animated during the debate to censure Seeney.
So why would Seeney do this in a week when they are normally slapping each other on the back and wishing each other a merry Christmas. The last sitting day for the year is tomorrow. If he does as Debnam does I would expect him to get the same results Debnam got. Is this hairy chested performance just a show of testosterone before they roll up to the preselection meeting this weekend? In a state context his performancr of the past two days makes no sense at all.
Could the Nats be the spoilers at the next Federal election? The Nats need to assert their independance to survive. In some sears if may be open warfare against the Libs.
Probably he’s hot under the collar having failed to bully the Liberals into accepting his various plans to make him Premier even if they get more seats. And I think he only has one political tactic – slinging mud and ranting at the top of his voice.
They’ll rue the day they let Springborg go.
I can’t understand why Seeney would think that the Lib MPs would uphold any pledge to him in the event that the Libs/Nats held a majority of seats and the Libs held more seats than the Nats. Attempting to introduce a pledge makes Seeney look weak.
He may or may not be trying to break the Coalition agreement, Sacha.
This makes sense.
Back to the post – Boswell has been a pussycat for the coalition compared to Barnaby. I’m sure that Howard wants Boswell to win preselection – if he doesn’t, it might mean two independently minded Qld Nat senators – sufficiently many to kill off legislation even if Howard has Steven Fielding’s vote.
Precisely.
And I think that only a Barnaby style Nat could actually win the seat.
Everyone:
Boz? Isn’t his nickname Chopsticks?
[Similarly, Kim Beazley is called Bomber in the news media but I've heard him called War-Toy from his days as Minister for Defence].
Boz surives.
Everyone:
The Nationals have just committed political suicide. Sincere, affable, avunclar Boswell is back on the ticket.
In the unlikely event that another federal election actually does take place ….. Who will take that Senate seat – Labor?, F.F.?, Greens?, Australian Democrats?