What exactly is the new Liberal National Party? While according to the Queensland Parliament’s website it exists, some of its members are acting as though the merger had never happened and the National and Liberal parties still exist, at least at a federal level, in Queensland.
Barnaby Joyce, whose slogan, according to Fran Kelly, is “differentiate or disappear”, because if the National Party doesn’t offer something different to the Liberal Party he believes they will just disappear, has just become Senate Leader of the National Party.
Not bad for someone who belongs to a party that is a division of the federal Liberal Party. (Or at least will be when it is actually approved). What’s more, while the Liberal National Party’s constitution has an arcane provision where a member can be a member of another political party, if the new party means anything, the National Party has failed to differentiate itself from the Liberal Party in Queensland and has therefore ceased to exist.
And if Joyce succeeds in convincing his colleagues to work against the Liberal Party, where does that leave the LNP? Should it take disciplinary action against him? Or is it really just a sham creature, designed at great expense, to take a few wrinkles out of Queensland state politics, but leaving its federal politicians at leisure to behave as though they were members of separate parties.
The Federal Council of the Liberal Party has to sign-off on this new party to make it legal. While it would not look good in the run-up to a Queensland state election to act as spoilers by knocking the proposal back, it could look equally silly in the run-up to a federal election if it doesn’t.
Brendan Nelson didn’t handle the merger in Queensland well, but the bomb is still alive for his successor Malcolm Turnbull to handle.