Gina-Marie CheesemanQueensland Liberals Spineless Deal!
February 4th 2007 13:01
The Queensland Liberal Party has revealed itself this week to be both spineless and inept in its dealing with the majority seat holder in opposition, the National party and has treated Liberal voters with distain.
In a decision that flies in the face of all accepted convention in the Westminster system of government that Australian parliaments have modelled themselves on the Liberal parliamentary leader Dr Bruce Flegg has announced that regardless of which party (Nationals or Liberals) wins the most seats at the next state election and if this was enough to give them a coalition government over Labor the Liberals would accept the current National party leader as premier.
This is a staggering back down of the highest order for both Flegg and the Liberal party itself.
Flegg had previously said following a farcical situation during the last State election campaign where neither he nor his National party colleague Lawrence Springborg could come up with a definitive answer to the question, who would be premier if the Liberals won more seats then the Nationals?
The answer back then is as it should be now is the party who supplies the most seats in Parliament supplies the Premier.
This back down highlights some of the many problems that face a bewildered Liberal Party who are still reeling and counting the cost of their pathetically run election campaign of 2006.
Firstly what Flegg is signalling in this apparent compromise (although its hard to see where the Nationals compromised here) is that he does not believe the Liberals will be in the position with him as leader to be the senior party in the coalition.
This is a resounding vote of no-confidence in his party both parliamentary and organisationally, as well as a complete lack of belief in his own ability to turn his parties fortunes around.
As almost all political pundits, pollsters and analysts will explain Queensland’s massive immigration from the southern states are almost singularly headed to the states greater south-east corridor and these folk are either Labor or Liberal voters.
Voting for the Nationals is anathema to these folk.
They are urban folk and the closet they have come to a National party voter is in the cow exhibition at there local agricultural show.
The Nationals are struggling to hold on to any sort of support and there decision to go with Jeff Seeney as Parliamentary leader further distanced themselves from the metropolitan areas which former leader Lawrence Springborg was at least able to engage.
Seeney’s “country tough guy” approach alienates much of the urban voters.
The latest Morgan poll shows the reality of the situation with the coalition on only a miserable 32.5% of support the Liberals out weight the Nationals vote by over 200% .
The Liberals with 23% primary support and the hapless Nationals on only 9.5%.
It seems incredible that a political leader given this amount of support over his coalition colleagues would give up the top political job in Queensland so far out from a State election.
It does beg the question “Does Dr Flegg think he won’t be there come the next state election and so any personal commitment he has made not really mean anything?”
The other stumbling block in this whole process was that it was conceived by the parliamentary wings of the political parties without much input from the organisational wings.
The Liberals state organisational body of the party has a long history of ambitious apparatchiks and factionalised executives who must be despondent at the news there parliamentary colleagues have ruled out any chance of a Liberal premier.
If the polls continue to show the Liberals with overwhelming support compared to the Nationals and migration continues to the South-east and its growing urbanisation that brings it is hard to think that the Liberal party organisation will be prepared to sit on its hands and watch the Liberals give up a chance at the premier’s job.
Liberal voters to will surely be put in an invidious situation where they will be asked to vote Liberal but told even if a majority of Queenslanders do Queensland will still not have a Liberal leader.
One has to only look at the animosity that occurs in the federal coalition caucus to see how many Liberals view their supposed National Party colleagues.
Warren Entsch a Federal Queensland Liberal has been quick to attack the National Party over the issue of regional grants while others have attacked the Nationals support for the AWB and the single desk wheat sales monopoly.
He is not alone in his attacks with many of his colleagues prepared to get in on the act especially where the name Barnaby Joyce is mentioned.
With the Beattie Government still lurching from crisis to crisis and the dagger of a long incumbency hanging over them the next election, although still 3 years away, presents itself as an opportunity for the Liberals to strut their stuff as a major player in Queensland state politics
.
Giving away any chance of the Leadership however shows a complete lack of nous and is a surrender to both the Nationals and Labor a long way out from the election.
It is easy to see why the Liberals have not had more then single digit numbers in the parliament for almost a decade.
Both parties in this case are guilty of once again treating the voters with contempt in playing out their political games.
Voters are not fools and it does not take much for them to work out that the party with the most seats in parliament should get the Premiers spot and anything else no matter what sort of sweetheart deal has been entered into is a denial of what voters expect.
The coalition in the end can put whatever spin they like on the deal but it will look simply to voters as another political deal done with no thought to what the voters want or expect.
With this attitude in mind it is highly likely that the voters of Queensland will not anytime soon give them the chance to see if the deal will hold and that when the next election comes around the squabbles will once again be over the opposition spoils and any thoughts of government s will be forgotten for another three years.
In a decision that flies in the face of all accepted convention in the Westminster system of government that Australian parliaments have modelled themselves on the Liberal parliamentary leader Dr Bruce Flegg has announced that regardless of which party (Nationals or Liberals) wins the most seats at the next state election and if this was enough to give them a coalition government over Labor the Liberals would accept the current National party leader as premier.
This is a staggering back down of the highest order for both Flegg and the Liberal party itself.
Flegg had previously said following a farcical situation during the last State election campaign where neither he nor his National party colleague Lawrence Springborg could come up with a definitive answer to the question, who would be premier if the Liberals won more seats then the Nationals?
Bruce Flegg and Jeff Seeney strike a Deal
The answer back then is as it should be now is the party who supplies the most seats in Parliament supplies the Premier.
This back down highlights some of the many problems that face a bewildered Liberal Party who are still reeling and counting the cost of their pathetically run election campaign of 2006.
Firstly what Flegg is signalling in this apparent compromise (although its hard to see where the Nationals compromised here) is that he does not believe the Liberals will be in the position with him as leader to be the senior party in the coalition.
This is a resounding vote of no-confidence in his party both parliamentary and organisationally, as well as a complete lack of belief in his own ability to turn his parties fortunes around.
As almost all political pundits, pollsters and analysts will explain Queensland’s massive immigration from the southern states are almost singularly headed to the states greater south-east corridor and these folk are either Labor or Liberal voters.
Voting for the Nationals is anathema to these folk.
They are urban folk and the closet they have come to a National party voter is in the cow exhibition at there local agricultural show.
The Nationals are struggling to hold on to any sort of support and there decision to go with Jeff Seeney as Parliamentary leader further distanced themselves from the metropolitan areas which former leader Lawrence Springborg was at least able to engage.
Seeney’s “country tough guy” approach alienates much of the urban voters.
The latest Morgan poll shows the reality of the situation with the coalition on only a miserable 32.5% of support the Liberals out weight the Nationals vote by over 200% .
The Liberals with 23% primary support and the hapless Nationals on only 9.5%.
It seems incredible that a political leader given this amount of support over his coalition colleagues would give up the top political job in Queensland so far out from a State election.
It does beg the question “Does Dr Flegg think he won’t be there come the next state election and so any personal commitment he has made not really mean anything?”
The other stumbling block in this whole process was that it was conceived by the parliamentary wings of the political parties without much input from the organisational wings.
The Liberals state organisational body of the party has a long history of ambitious apparatchiks and factionalised executives who must be despondent at the news there parliamentary colleagues have ruled out any chance of a Liberal premier.
If the polls continue to show the Liberals with overwhelming support compared to the Nationals and migration continues to the South-east and its growing urbanisation that brings it is hard to think that the Liberal party organisation will be prepared to sit on its hands and watch the Liberals give up a chance at the premier’s job.
Liberal voters to will surely be put in an invidious situation where they will be asked to vote Liberal but told even if a majority of Queenslanders do Queensland will still not have a Liberal leader.
One has to only look at the animosity that occurs in the federal coalition caucus to see how many Liberals view their supposed National Party colleagues.
Warren Entsch a Federal Queensland Liberal has been quick to attack the National Party over the issue of regional grants while others have attacked the Nationals support for the AWB and the single desk wheat sales monopoly.
He is not alone in his attacks with many of his colleagues prepared to get in on the act especially where the name Barnaby Joyce is mentioned.
With the Beattie Government still lurching from crisis to crisis and the dagger of a long incumbency hanging over them the next election, although still 3 years away, presents itself as an opportunity for the Liberals to strut their stuff as a major player in Queensland state politics
.
Giving away any chance of the Leadership however shows a complete lack of nous and is a surrender to both the Nationals and Labor a long way out from the election.
It is easy to see why the Liberals have not had more then single digit numbers in the parliament for almost a decade.
Both parties in this case are guilty of once again treating the voters with contempt in playing out their political games.
Voters are not fools and it does not take much for them to work out that the party with the most seats in parliament should get the Premiers spot and anything else no matter what sort of sweetheart deal has been entered into is a denial of what voters expect.
The coalition in the end can put whatever spin they like on the deal but it will look simply to voters as another political deal done with no thought to what the voters want or expect.
With this attitude in mind it is highly likely that the voters of Queensland will not anytime soon give them the chance to see if the deal will hold and that when the next election comes around the squabbles will once again be over the opposition spoils and any thoughts of government s will be forgotten for another three years.
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