Denying former Liberal leader Bruce Flegg the shadow treasury spot as payback for his opposition to the amalgamation wasn’t a good start for Lawrence Springborg’s vision of the LNP as one happy Pineapple Party. Now it’s being revealed that some moderate Liberals are urging others to stay within the tent only for time being, while in some federal electorates in Brisbane – particularly Rankin – almost all members of the former Liberal Party have refused to join the LNP. If The Borg can’t convince his own ostensible troops in the capital of his bona fides, it suggests his chances of picking up the metropolitan seats he needs for victory rely only on his own charisma and pr efforts. Perhaps the rebranding of portfolios such as “food security” and “housing accessibility” demonstrates his (so far empty) vision for the future? And didn’t he mean “housing affordability”?
But it’s not all happy campers on the Labor side of the aisle either. Anna Bligh’s own left faction has chafed at her call to re-endorse Police Minister Judy Spence, whose seat of Mount Gravatt was abolished in the recent redistribution. The left’s Ros Mclennan, an independent teachers’ union official, has put her hand up for pre-selection.
From my point of view I’d be glad to see Spence go. She’s a “law and order” Minister of the most egregious kind, and as far as most people can tell, her agenda and the Police Union’s can’t be distinguished in any meaningful sense.
So Anna Bligh’s own faction has challenged her to make her rhetoric of renewal a reality, and to clear the frontbenches of non performers. The fact that this is being aired in public, and that it’s happening at all, is not a good sign. Folks I’ve talked to over the last week suggest that there is significant concern within the public service as well as within the party about Bligh’s decisiveness or otherwise, and there’s a fair bit of Peter Beattie nostalgia around George Street at the moment. But it’s not all plain sailing on the Opposition side. Shadow Attorney-General Stuart Copeland has had his seat of Cunningham abolished in the redistribution. But The Borg won’t stand up to veteran former leader Mike Horan and demand that he retire from Toowoomba South as envisaged. It’s all quite unusual for a state used to strong leadership…
Disclosure: I was a friend of Ros Mclennan’s at Uni.
It is hard to believe that Spence and Schwarten are still pretending they have ministerial futures. Neither has ever been anything than a medium pacer at best, and now that they don’t have the likes of macenroth and beattie to sheild and protect them, they would be well advised to go will the going is still okay rather than stick around and have their incompetence fully exposed.
Bligh to be replaced by January. That’s what I’ve heard. Who was it that said Oppositions don’t win elections rather Government’s lose them?
Bligh to be replaced? By whom? It’s about a year until an election must be held and there’s no way the ALP will be able to put up a new Premier who is popular with the electorate and give them enough time to make an impact before the next election.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, I guess.
If Bligh doesn’t ‘stand up’ for Spence the Cabinet will split. Spence, as you suggest, is in the pocket of the Police Union but that won’t harm her politically. Sad but true. She has a strong ally in Schwarten but his time may also be past.
If Blight was not the leader then who? Certainly not Lucas, Pitt, Keech, Boyle or even Fraser who has some maturing to do. Welford is going. Leaves only Mickel as an outside chance. Thus to abandon Bligh would be to abandon all hope.
Word I’ve heard is that a certain QLD Minister who may (or may not) have been mentioned in this post has certain erm, issues, viz, and namely: that it may (or may not) be the case the he (or she) doth bend the elbow more than, say, other and perhaps averagely red-blooded QLD front benchers doth bend theirs.
But you didn’t hear that from me.
PS I cant believe Bligh will go before an election.
PPS Me too re Ros. Go Ros!
A split in the Liberal National Party can only be good for Qld politics. Bartlett has lamented the death of any party which can hold a claim to being “liberal” and the emergence of a new liberal group from the ashes of the pre-merger Liberals would probably go some way towards rebuilding Queensland liberalism.
If they’re lucky, a new liberal party would hold the balance of power in Queensland’s next parliament and be able to negotiate policy with either the ALP or the Lib Nats. These libs would never hold government by themselves but the old Liberals were never going to be in charge anyway. Could the liberals do the job in Queensland that the Democrats did federally?
Who are the backbenchers that deserve promotion?
Judy Spence an underperformer? Nothing in that statement separates her from the rest of the talentless bunch masquerading as the Qld state govt.
However as police minister she has found a niche, ie, don’t get the police union offside and allow the public to think you are interested in keeping crooks off the streets.
Fraser has some maturing to do? Understatement of the century. God help Queensland if that juvenile is EVER let off the chain.
The losses in Rankin were not necessarily the result of them refusing to join the LNP but from issues relating back to the last Federal Election and a short period after that.
ah, Kitty the old throw in a red herring of Pineapple Party propaganda to derail a thread quickly trick. Interesting that nobody actually believed your nonsense about the Borg replacing Bligh and I doubt whether the electors will next year either.