The Liberals in Queensland have been a joke for a couple of decades.

Yes but a pretty destructive joke.

Antonio:
No, your broad brush-strokes are just fine – especially on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast influences – but it is all too little and too late, no matter how staunch its members in those areas may be.. And yes, when Tom Burns took over the ALP in the Queensland Parliament way back in the mists of ntime, the ALP was in a very sorry state ….. but the situation for the Queensland Branch of the LiberaL Party in 2007 is very different indeed.

They are terminally moribund; not even magic spells, celebrity candidates and millions of dollars can save them now. Ever hear of the mighty United Australia Party of back in the ‘Thirties?….. same coffin; different corpse.

I have had it confirmed by a very reliable source that Borbidge is indeed a dual South African/Australian citizen and that the Biography on Wikipedia is somewhat inaccurate. Borbidge’s own bio of himself appears on the Samuel Griffith Society website here: http://www.samuelgriffith.org.au/papers/html/volume10/v10app2.htm

My source informs me that one of Borbidge’s parents was South African hence he was educated for a significant period of time at Overberg on the Western Cape.

You made a jibe that I didn’t get a political staffers job. My response was that I didn’t apply for one nor solicit one nor have I ever done so. How that would even be relevant to my earlier comments is beyond me. I have never pretended to be anything other than a Liberal. My politics are definitely right of centre. In the party spectrum I consider myself a social & economic liberal. In the Queensland party I have had dalliances with both groupings but now consider myself unaligned. I have friends in both groupings.

Yes it’s a truism that there are crap political staffers. The problem for Bruce Flegg is that he seems to have had most of them! When your own staff are leaking stories to the media against you during an election campaign PLUS booking you in for a media conference without inviting any media – I would say that you have problems. A lot of this stuff is on the public record anyway.

What is worse is that good people are now very unwilling to work in Flegg’s office because they see him as a dead man walking. An investigation into the calibre and background of the current staff would speak for itself.

Steve,

My view is that the parliamentary party is really out of its depth at the moment. There is relatively little experience there or knowledge of the relevant procedures. Another factor is the toughness of Jeff Seeney. He seems to have well and truly smacked down the Libs as a bunch of hopeless rabble much to the chagrin of the average Liberal party member.

Another factor is that talented people from the private sector don’t seem to be getting preselected into winnable seats. Case in point – the last two candidates for the VERY winnable seat of Indooroopilly. I don’t see the state Liberal party digging up a “Chris Bombolas” any time soon!

Dickson 8
Elmes 10
Flegg 30
Langbroek 24
McArdle 18
Nicholls 19
Stevens 6
Stuckey 17

They rarely ask any questions without notice to Ministers beside Beattie and Bligh and let the Nats dominate them at every turn, speeches often run short of time allotted.

I just searched hansard for the record of Langbroek and it appears that he has done very little besides voting since being there. Ditto for Stuckey and most of the eight Liberal members really.

They voted against recycled water, all the pipes for the watergrid and basically what their role is in the Queensland parliament seems to be a mystery. Can you shed any light on what all these factional warriors actually do?

So what that you haven’t worked as a political staffer. There are good political staffers and there are bad political staffers. There are crap people working in medical research as well. “The background” is your opinion so don’t pretend it’s non-partisan or non-factional. Cripes!!! I’d high-five you back, but nope.

The Liberals in Queensland have been a joke for a couple of decades.

For some reason I was sure that Rob Borbidge held South African citizenship which was the main prohibiting factor against him going into Federal politics.

I will do more research into it!

Actually like myself, Bob Borbidge is a South African!

I don’t think so, Antonio.

Borbidge was born in the town of Ararat in Victoria in 1954. After becoming involved in the affairs of the Country Party at a young age, he unsuccessfully stood for election for the Victorian state seat of Ripon. His parents owned a sheep property and were attracted to Queensland by Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s abolition of death duties, moving to the Gold Coast. He attended The Southport School and worked in his family motel business. At this time, the Gold Coast was the home of the property development boom that the Bjelke-Petersen government actively fostered, working in close co-operation with a group of developers known as the “white-shoe brigade”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Borbidge

Actually like myself, Bob Borbidge is a South African! Stuckey is a bit of a goose but more goose-like than Flegg not having a Health Policy when the election was called? Ahem.

Darlene,

I have always worked in the private sector and would NEVER work as a political staffer (cannot imagine a more unfulfilling form of employment!). Full disclosure: I am the manager of a private medical research firm which does not receive government funding. I have NEVER applied for nor sought employment as a political staffer. I was actually trying to provide some background to Flegg’s ongoing troubles. Nice try with the subtle personal attack though. High fives!

Graham:

Heard it before about both the ALP and the Libs. The state Liberals will come back but it will take a substantial amount of time.

Kim:

The Brisbane-based Qld Libs are fcuked. Membership is so bad I cannot even begin to describe. Watch for the real talent to eventually come from a regional area – ie. North/South Coast. The real story about the Qld Liberal Party is that the majority of the problems are Brisbane-based and rooted in class. Santo draws much of his support from branches in “new-money” and “working-class” areas of Brisbane. Santo’s supporters tend to be white or South European migrants to Australia of 30 years or more standing. The other side tends to draw support from “old money” and “asians”. There really is a marked difference in the sociological composition of both groupings worthy of further investigation. Obviously, I am stereotyping here and painting with broad strokes.

David:

The problem is structural and also membership composition based. Both sides increasingly draw their support from completely differing demographic groupings – which will make the process of reform much more painful in the short-medium term.

Hmmm, last time I looked Bob Quinn was leader or was it…the Liberals have had so many.

It’s totally unoriginal to say that the Liberals in Queensland are suffering from of a long-standing case of fighting over the spoils of opposition.

“He has suffered from an appalling choice of staff (factional allies rather than skilled media operatives or advisors) who knifed him during the election.”

So Antonio didn’t get a job we can presume?

That the Liberals have finally got themselves into such an unholy mess is hardly surprising: they have stifled their back-benchers; they have chased away worthy candidates for pre-selection; they have attacked and harmed their supporters — small-businesses, migrants, war veterans, investors, retirees and …. [dare I use the term on LarvatusProdeo?] ….. housewives.

Time to close the curtain on this whole ridiculous farce and make a fresh start. Now, what’s next on the program?

Not a good look I’m afraid.

We did have Borbidge as a Nat Premier for five minutes once but he was a Victorian who quickly lost his way.

Terminal factionalism and disunity. And cross-factional intra-factional disunity!

Langbroek is by FAR the preferred option, however internal polling indicates that a Brisbane-based leader is necessary in order to make the seat breakthrough that the state Liberals desperately need.

Really? Someone from the Gold Coast whose sister is a TV personality can’t be leader and win seats in Brisbane? That sounds a little unambitious (not surprising, I guess).

I suppose it’s important to remember that plenty of people have moved to SE Qld who may have previously voted Liberal, but never National in their previous home state. It’s a real shock to see a Liberal Party under the thumb of the Nats, especially in this day and age.

Perhaps the next successful Qld State Liberal leader will be an interstate immigrant, with instincts unused to kowtowing to this overweening National Party.

Do either of you think this is a structural problem for the Libs, or could it be solved with the right ’strong leader’?

As a factional colleague, McArdle would be a far better option than Flegg but again he is a non-Brisbanite as well. When Flegg bumped Quinn he bumped off one of his own (anti-Santo) comrades. In doing so, he immediately lost the trust of Stuckey who was a Quinn fan. Ray Stevens owes Flegg no favours either despite their broad factional ties. That leaves Flegg perilously short of a majority.

Cross-factionally, Flegg’s leadership is terminal. It is only a matter of time. He has suffered from an appalling choice of staff (factional allies rather than skilled media operatives or advisors) who knifed him during the election. Now, he cannot find anyone decent to work for him! He has the dubious distinction of having foes in his own faction and in the Santo grouping! I would not be surprised if Jan Stuckey emerges as a compromise candidate over the short-medium term. She is relatively faction-free.

Bottom line, this really has very little to do with organised factionalism and is more a case of competency vs incumbency. Flegg is no high-powered factional player and only won his own preselection by one vote against that infamous challenger backed by Michael Johnson – Russell Galt (oh the stories!!!) Granted, Flegg’s quipps about Santo certainly haven’t helped his case much either. Flegg was a probing opposition front-bencher but as a leader his strengths don’t lie in cogent leadership!

Seeney has been totally dominating Flegg this year and all Flegg can do is bow, nod, salute and curtsy in Seeney’s presence. Seeney took control after Flegg stood up to him for a day on purified recycled water and he has been under Seeney’s thumb ever since.

Seeney and Flegg made the deal without the other state libs being given any say. I can understand their anger and it is hard to imagine why Flegg would agree to such an insane concept. I also love the concept that the Member for Clayfield is too inexperienced to lead but Flegg isn’t, and McArdle isn’t.

McArdle was going to challenge Flegg after the dismal campaign performance of Flegg late last year but McArdle could not muster the numbers either. I mean how hard is it to get four or five people to join them in a coup? It is beginning to look like superglue is needed to get Libs to stick together

Not covered? No Queensland law affected?

I guess that is indeed the reason, pablo. It was a Federal decision.