The Liberal National Party process is in all sorts of trouble, with Queensland Liberal President Mal Brough obtaining a resolution from his State Council last night to delay the Liberal convention which was called to anoint the deal tomorrow. State Liberal leader Mark McCardle, along with two other of the party’s eight MPs, has cosied up with the Nats this morning, and threats of legal action and calls to proceed anyway with the convention are resounding through the airwaves.
As noted at LP in earlier posts, the turbulence in the incipient Pineapple Party comes from the spillover of the poisonous factional politics of the Queensland Libs. What’s happening now appears to be a split driven by the actions of the Santo Santoro forces, who are quite prepared to enter the new entity to try to exert the influence they’d been losing. Graham Young has a lot more detail on all the machinations - and motivations the media aren’t picking up - over at Ambit Gambit. It’s hard to disagree with his conclusion that Anna Bligh’s government is potentially beatable, but that the huge levels of disunity on display at the foundation of a “united conservative party” make the Libs and the Nats their own worst enemies.
I think it’s a bit more complex to be described as just another Santo conspiracy. The end game is all about delivering a credible alternative to Queensland electors and neither the Nats nor the Libs are achieving that at the moment. Again, they have allowed some pretty dreadful performances by Bligh ministers this week at Estimates go into the ether without so much as a passing comment.
Maybe they should just TOSS A COIN??
So somehow Brough pulling the pin at the last minute and not giving his party a vote is Santoro’s fault? I thought Brough got elected on the basis that he would make the new constitution more democratic. First they wanted an unelected president forced on the new party now they don’t want their Liberal members to have a say on the floor of convention…
Bring on the LNP!
Completely farcical scenes on the news tonight.
And John Quiggin’s take:
http://johnquiggin.com/index.php/archives/2008/07/25/no-libationals-today/
The Queensland Supreme court tonight overturned the result from last night’s meeting and the convention will go ahead as planned.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24074748-952,00.html
I’m not sure if this is a forum for serious discussion… or for leftist ideologues to vent, but I will treat it as the former.
Looking at Graham Young’s analysis, he is still sees everythign through the prism of when he was a Liberal.
…the Liberal Party has little to do with amalgamation and everything to do with factional politics. Santoro was resolutely opposed to the amalgamation until he realised he could use it as a weapon against his enemies. He even campaigned against Brough when he first announced his intention to run for president because he was pro-amalgamation! Now Santoro is its biggest supporter and bags Brough because he is alleged to be part of the Tucker faction and anti-amalgamation.
I’m not saying the factions play no part in the Liberal Party these days, but I have heard many Liberals tell me from some months ago that the weight of party opinion supported amalgamation. So it is very likely that Santo sniffed the wind and wanted to be on the winning side. It is far less likely that this is part of some last gasp factional play.
I don’t see how, no matter what the Borg’s pr spin might be, the creation of the new party magically wishes away the ambitions and strategems of factional hacks like Santoro and his crew.
BTW I heard last night at the Sofitel door that Santoro and his mob had come on board.
I understand there was a letter from Nelson late in the piece that said he had plans to revitalise the Qld Liberal Party. Brough used this for his one last stand. There is speculation that it was written by the likes of Brandis and shoved in front of Nelson’s nose to sign in return for support in leadership battles to come.
Some Liberals (Brandis?) think it would be infra-dig to be in cahoots with a mob of cow cockies and hayseeds. Essentially they’d rather die.
There were plenty of Libs there yesterday. The ones that don’t want to die.
The Nats, it is thought, would be $2m better off if they started a new party without the Libs, but no-one knows for sure how much debt they bring to the marriage.
The Nats are finding out the hard way about Brough’s operational style. The Nats have always been a strongly democratic party with policies and ideas flowing up from the grass roots. The Libs are the reverse. The membership is there to make up the numbers.
That’s all the goss. I’ll get back to work now.
Both parties have voted to merge and everyone is happy.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24080605-5003402,00.html
This is just a National Party takeover. National Party Leader, National Party President and the Nationals dominate the Parliamentary Group. The Liberals basically don’t exist & that concerns me as a Brisbane Liberal voter, I believe the Nationals are still the Party of the bush.
David WNo Gravatar
Jul 26th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Possibly because your view of pineapple politics may be stuck in the 80′S. The fact that QLD is unique on this occasion is actually a good thing. Democracy will benefit.
Benjo Democracy will benefit only because the next election stands a good chance of having independent conservatives standing against and defeating Pineapple Party candidates. Good independents running on local issues could well swamp a party with rural policies for the city and city policies for rural electorates.
The preselection stoushes for those who aren’t sitting members will be a sight to behold.
what I want to know is who will the Pineapple party blame for the next election loss now they haven’t got the Liberals to blame?
Now the Pineapple Party is going to blitz us with TV ad campaign to celebrate 24 hours of unity.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=S5gmsOl-RSQ