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?