Wednesday 11th May will be a significant day for Margaret Krause. It is the day she will appear in front of what she and others refer to as the “Star Chamber” – the Queensland Liberal Party’s Discplinary Committee.
The committee has had a revamp since it interviewed Marion Feros, a former challenger for the presidency of the party. Her crime was to answer journalists’ questions honestly after her defeat, and for this the committee recommended that she be censored. It now includes some new members, including Kathi Parer, wife of former Senator Warwick. None of them appears to have any legal experience.
That makes you wonder what they might do about Krause’s crime which is to occasionally circulate emails from Crikey!, one of which was picked up by her local paper and printed as though it were a letter to the editor from her.
All of this is just another pain-in-the-neck for Liberal Leader Bob Quinn. According to the Courier Mail today, and confirmed by party sources, his press sec and another long-serving staffer have departed or been sacked. On top of that, rumour has it that the Sicilian faction is targetting his preselection using Young Liberals in the Gold Coast Young Liberals branch.
While the GC Y/Ls are based in the neighbouring federal electorate of Moncrieff, held by Stephen Ciobo, a significant number of them actually live in Quinn’s electorate where they attend Bond Uni. I’m told that maybe 100 of them could be eligible to vote in Quinn’s preselection, which would dwarf his own senior party branch membership. Normally you’d discount this sort of speculation as being just trouble-making, except for the fact that the administration is refusing to give Quinn access to the branch membership records of the GC Y/Ls. The speculation also says that Michael Caltabiano is the one interested in running. One for an enterprising journo to get him on the record about.
Imagine that, a state leader being denied access to a membership list. No date has yet been set for Quinn’s trial. Seems Margaret has all the luck.