Queensland Liberal members voted by a large majority to accept the Nationals’ takeover bid for their allegedly insolvent party, and the deal is all set to be consummated at a constitutional convention. So all is peachy in the Pineapple Party? Maybe not.
There’s been previous speculation that Mal Brough, the former federal Minister and recently elected Liberal President, may be positioning himself in the medium term for entry into state Parliament. There’s been speculation that the Santoro forces in the state Libs might be doing the numbers to oust Lawrence “The Borg” Springborg from his perch. Brough was elected in order to get a better negotiating deal for Liberals than his predecessor, Gary Spence. Now Spence is putting his hand up for the presidency of the Liberal National Party and current Nats president, Bruce McIver, hasn’t ruled out throwing in his hat. All federal MPs and Senators have been bought off by guarenteed preselection, but - rather ironically - Warren Truss says it would be undemocratic to pre-empt the question of the presidency. Will Brough be dumped? Is this payback for Brough’s negotiating stance and a pre-emptive strike at a possible leadership contender?
There’s also a fair bit of talk around town that the Nats, who now seem to think they own the show (and who have a much larger grass roots membership and a gerrymander within the LNP to inflate that influence), have been preparing a sheath of conservative policy to push through the inaugural convention. How will that play in Brisbane? How do Campbell Newman and his Liberal councillors position themselves with respect to the Pineapple Party (and Newman was an opponent)? Does anyone really think this thing will survive an election loss? Interesting times ahead.
Barnaby and other Nationals Senators walking into the Liberal Party room in Canberra to vote for the Liberal leader would be a sight to see. I think the games played in canberra right from the next sittings will make the ‘Joh for Canberra’ push look like child’s play.
Now we have Clive Palmer’s franchise not only deciding who the alternate Queensland Premier is but now with Nats free to vote in Liberal leaders, Palmer can determine who becomes alternative Prime Minister. Nelson only won by a vote or two didn’t he?
This looks very ominous to me. From your link about Brough being dumped.
I don’t know how many Nationals Members and Senators from Queensland there are but if they all park themselves in the Liberal Party party room, what then?
[However, Queensland Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce said the new entity would be constitutionally a division of the federal Liberal Party at the same time it was affiliated with the federal Nationals. “There’s nothing to stop me going into the Liberal partyroom and voting on who is going to be the Liberal leader,” Senator Joyce said.
“Under the party constitution, MPs can choose whichever partyroom they want to sit in. People could chop and change between partyrooms.”]
Yeah, I’m not sure the Libs are going to be overjoyed by Barnaby’s intentions!
This is very interesting. I’d be surprised if this move ends up being anything other than a big failure.
Electors don’t care a whit for the internal machinations of party administration (as opposed to perceptions of disunity in the parliamentary wing).
We can deride the LNP with fruity epithets, but it is in the short term at least, a winner with electors.
There’s every chance The Borg will be the next Premier, and eventually labelled some kind of political genius, merely for achieving the: (a) electorally obvious in merging the parties up here, and (b) selfish thing in reinforcing the position of the National MPs and powerbrokers, even if it only papers over their longterm decline.
Do you want a bet on The Borg being the next premier, Graeme?
Note in the post the reference back to speculation over a tilt at his leadership - already. It’s pretty clear that the Parliamentary Liberal Party aren’t a harmonious happy family, and nor for that matter are the Nats - Seeney hasn’t taken his overthrow lying down. The same levels of indiscipline in factional infighting that exist in the Liberal organisation are there in their parliamentary wing - do you really think they’ll be successful in papering over the cracks? Unless they do what they did last time - essentially go to the election with no policy positions - that also will provide lots of fodder for argy bargy.
It’s also not electorally obvious, contrary to the line that’s been sold to the Courier-Mail, in that the Libs opposed to the takeover well know it’s going to play really badly in Brisbane seats, and there’s every reason to expect that - having failed in the initial (impossible) intention to hoover in all the dissident right wing rural parties - that the same will apply in the bush. Let’s not forget that Labor also hold a lot of regional seats because - in part - of sea/tree changes to the demographics, where voters have reacted increasingly negatively to the Nationals brand. Will the Liberal Nationals brand be any different - particularly when it becomes clear who’s running the shop?
Maybe he should hope for some sort of Federal Intervention (preferably involving the Army) to save him from that dreadful cycle of violence and abuse that is Conservative politics in Qld..
Heh!
One of the stories suggested that Brough would resign if he didn’t become Pineapple president. However, it’s rather unclear what he has left to resign from.
Mark there was a story on the ABC news last night that Brough tried to write himself into the Pineapple Party constitution as president. The Nationals seem to prefer a vote of some kind.
wonder if Graeme would be prepared to do what nobody from the Pineapple Party cheersquad has done so far and tell us which twenty seats over and above the seats held now will be won by the Pine Apple party. Until they can tell us that I consider claims of a Springborg win as hotair.
MARK: “Do you want a bet on The Borg being the next premier?”
… you giving odds?
What other bets are in your book, is there one for “It won’t be Anna Bligh?”