When there’s a serious contest for Queensland Liberal Party President it generally ends up being a close-run thing. Not this time. Mal Brough won 309 votes to Greg Spence’s 152. That’s 67% of the vote.
Not only that, but he also had a team elected that he can work with. The Vice-Presidents are Bob Harper (267 votes), Dave Elson (260) and John Caris (243). I’m told that the six from the floor positions are also looking good for Brough.
Common sense seems to be surging up the east coast. Yesterday the New South Wales Liberal Party announced reforms brokered by state leader Barry O’Farrell. Now Queensland appears to be casting off the divisive factionalism that has blighted it for so long.
With such a huge margin it’s important that Brough doesn’t forget to reach out to those who didn’t vote for him. If there is to be an amalgamated party, the Liberals need to be careful that they don’t carry the viruses of political ineffectiveness into the union with them.
And if there isn’t to be an amalgamated party, then the Liberals will need everyone pulling in the same direction.
May 31, 2008 | Graham
Brough wins by largest margin that I can remember
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Graham:
By the titles of the “comments” above it looks like last cenury’s “brilliant” political operators are maintaining their usual standard of debate with people whose opinions are not exactly the same as their own …. or their masters’. Some things never change.
Comment by Graham Bell — June 1, 2008 @ 4:27 am
[ooops. that should have been the “comments” below].
Comment by Graham Bell — June 1, 2008 @ 4:30 am
The main issue driving opposition to the merger in its present form is the proposed dismantling of Ryan’s domination of the Queensland Liberal Party.
Now that Brough has accepted the Presidency of the party and he has made it clear he is in favour of a merger, he has to balance the fine line of following through with his backers’ requirements (maintenance of the per capita representation of Ryan compared to the current distributed representation model of 5 delegates per SEC.), whilst at the same time ensuring the Libs are no swamped by the Nats.
The Liberal party’s convention branch delegate provision for one delegate per 10 members of the branch would ensure Ryan’s power continues but in the larger scheme of things would provide overwhelming power to the Nats. In good faith the Nats have accepted this and that is why they agreed to the SEC delegates model accepting their larger numerical position.
Mr Brough stated that he is concerned about the following areas of the current proposed Constitution (his words not mine):
1. Grandfathering of existing members up to 2020 in the case of some Senators;
2. No requirement for preselectors to be on the electoral role;
3. 3 layers of bureaucracy with SECs, FECs and State Council (not to mention Regional Councils); and
4. State Executive involvement in plebiscites being increased from 33% to 50%.
He has not stated his position yet on the entitlement provisions for Convention, nor on the power arrangement for State Executive or its make up.
So let’s see what happens… will the Ryan powerbase maintain its control? Could the delegate entitlement be a deal breaker? I doubt it because the Nats have agreed to the model that would deliver them less power at Convention. A return to the present Liberal constitution’s provisions would in effect allow them to take the Queensland Division of the Liberal Party over by reverse.
Comment by Doug — June 1, 2008 @ 6:02 pm
It seems that Doug is pre-occupied by power bases.Has it ever occurred to those in power like Doug that it is not all about the power of his gonads.
It is not self evident to many pollies outside the realm of Mal Brough,that the people of Aust want pollies to do things for the common good?
We’ve had three decades of decadence and missed opportunities, and still the egotists like Doug want to argue the finer points of their pecking order in a country in serious decay.
Comment by Arjay — June 1, 2008 @ 7:54 pm