Some Queensland Liberals are nervous at proposed changes to their party’s state constitution, and perhaps with good cause. The constitution seems to be continually under review, and frequently reviews are aimed at advantaging one group or another in the party.
The last review was in 2002 when Bob Quinn was successful in having some of his anti-rorting provisions inserted against the wishes of then state president, Michael Caltabiano.
Changes to be considered at this year’s convention, to be held coincidentally with the 30th anniversary of the constitutional crisis of the sacking of the Whitlam government also deal with preselections. In this case they give the State Council the right to vet out candidates they regard as not appropriate.
This is being seen in the context of comments made by state director Geoff Greene in June this year when he said:

At this SPC [Strategic Planning Conference] weekend, many issues were discussed and resolved, but most importantly the need for the Liberal Party to preselect the best possible quality candidates in all winnable seats was high on the agenda items. Thinking ‘outside the square’ State Council determined unanimously that the need for preselecting the best candidates in electorates may need some alteration to the processes and thinking that we have employed in the past. No longer is the Party prepared to accept candidates just because they may ‘have the numbers’ if there are better candidates available for preselection to those seats.
As part of the unanimous resolutions of the State Council, we have determined to improve and strengthen the nomination process for this next round of State preselections and also to increase the strength of our vetting committee to give it ‘real teeth’. This will ensure that State Council is provided the opportunity to assess the value of calibre of candidates before they are approved to proceed to a preselection plebiscite…”

In other words, they don’t trust the branch membership to make the right decisions.
The changes may be academic. The Liberal Party constitution lays out quite an extensive program of consultation before the party can hold a constitution convention. Strangely for an organisation so obssessed with constitutional fiddling, this consultation doesn’t appear to have been undertaken.

George Cheihk could be the all-time heavyweight of political donors, both state and federal. I’ve been contacted to point out that I’ve under-stated George Cheihk’s contributions to the Liberal and Labor Parties. (See my earlier posts here and here.)
It seems that the total Mr Cheihk gave to both sides in 2003-2004 was $570,260.80. That’s huge, and dwarfs what even the largest corporates give, even at a federal level. The Queensland Liberals took $345,160.80 ($88,929.80 more than I thought) and Queensland Labor $165,100 ($90,100 more). I missed some of the payments because I didn’t do a company search and didn’t check the signatures on the returns. Sloppy journalism, but a good reason to run a blog where people will help you to do your job properly.
My informant took an interest in Cheihk because he is a local resident in Albion, and Cheihk is trying to have the quarry on Crosby Road rezoned for high density, which my new friend opposes. This would apparently require both state government and Brisbane City Council approval.
Ironically, the size of Cheihk’s donations probably makes it tougher for him to get the rezoning than if he had given something smaller. Irrespective of whether the application has merit or not, from a political point of view any favourable decision is going to look like it was made to aid a wealthy donor. The temptation for any council or state government would be to knock it back and let it go to court so they can wipe their hands of the blame. That’s the sort of friendship declarable donations buy in politics.
The issue would be much less difficult if Cheihk had only donated $25,000 to each.
It’s possible that this issue could hurt the prospects of Tim Nicholls, the Liberal candidate for Clayfield, which includes this area, in the next state election. Nicholls is currently the local councillor. He’ll presumably be lobbying against the rezoning to enhance his chances.
If not, perhaps he should resign as the candidate. Tony Morris QC is a local resident, and he is making no secret of the fact he’d love to run for state parliament. They could preselect him. Or perhaps they could repay Sally Hannah’s loyalty and preselect her instead. (For the low down on how Hannah, the Liberal candidate last time was treated when she applied for preselection this time, click here.) Except, next to excessive donations, loyalty is one of the other rarely rewarded things in politics.