LNP differences a Coalition headache

By Madonna King

Updated May 18, 2010 08:30:00

Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce

The most prominent National Senator, Barnaby Joyce, highlighted deep divisions between his party and the Liberal Party over the CPRS. (AAP)

With Kevin Rudd facing criticism his government has fallen short of expectations in its first term, his campaign team obviously will be trying to exploit any weakness it sees in the Coalition.

And one issue that is raising its head is the merged Liberal National Party in Queensland.

On polling day, those people north of the border will vote for a single candidate from the combined party. There will be no three-cornered contests, and candidates will campaign under a LNP masthead.

But once in Canberra, MPs have to choose a party room.

It will work like this:

Current MPs, who are re-elected, will sit in the same party room they are in now.

If the Conservatives take a seat off Labor which has previously been held by the Coalition, the new LNP MP will sit in the party room where the former conservative MP sat.

The third category involves those MPs who win in new seats, and the Coalition says that has been negotiated amicably on an electorate-by-electorate basis, principally on where the boundaries fall. If the Conservatives take Flynn off Labor it will add to the National Party room in Canberra; and if Wright is won by the LNP, the victorious MP will sit with the Liberals.

It seems straight up and down. But let's take these two examples.

Firstly, an environmental issue which might ignite differences between the traditional National and Liberal view, in the way that the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme did. The most prominent National Senator, Barnaby Joyce, highlighted the deep divisions between his party and many in the Liberal Party.

Secondly, it was also Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce who spoke a different language to his Liberal party frontbench colleagues on the economy.

His change of portfolios won't change it as an issue, once the election campaign swings into order.

Indeed Labor insiders say they will deliberately try and "drive a wedge'' between the two federal Coalition parties on those two fronts, and was now "scouting around for a big environmental issue'' to replace the CPRS ahead of the campaign.

Those on the Coalition campaign team dismiss the threat saying there were as many divisions within the Liberal party as there were between the two Coalition parties on the CPRS and Tony Abbott's leadership had put that issue to rest.

The LNP had also suffered no policy differences since its birth almost two years ago, and it would not be an issue in voters' minds, according to the Coalition.

That might or might not be true, but two MPs from the State Party quit this month to become independents, saying the LNP had lost its way, and behind the scenes differences continue to simmer.

The potential for the ALP to capitalise on divisions is also helped by the personalities involved, with the two most prominent federal Coalition Queenslanders being like chalk and cheese.

Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce shoots from the hip and will fight like hell for the bush. He doesn't care if the fight involves the Liberals, but internal polling shows he has a huge following in Queensland, and will be used over others in many Labor seats.

Senior Liberal Senator George Brandis couldn't be more different in style. He's more strategic, probably a bigger team player, and still sounds uncomfortable when throwing his considerable power behind the merged party.

And it is that difference between the parties and their personalities that Labor is going to try and exploit, and the Conservatives have to defend.

It's already been decided that Senator Joyce will play a big role in two seats that Labor is desperate to hold, and the LNP believes it can win. Those two seats include the big regional working towns of Mackay and Gladstone.

Labor says it will be telling voters in those areas Joyce doesn't agree with his own party on the big issues; the Coalition says the outspoken Senator has more in common with the workers and miners in those towns than any Labor MP.

It all sets it up for a wonderful political show down, that north of the border has begun already.

Madonna King presents Mornings each weekday from 8.30am on 612 ABC Brisbane.

Tags: government-and-politics, elections, federal-government, political-parties, liberal-party, nationals, liberal-national-party-queensland, australia

First posted May 18, 2010 08:00:00

Comments (11)

Comments for this story are closed, but you can still have your say.

  • realist:

    18 May 2010 8:52:12am

    Joyce and his mob have to learn to be team players, already there are problems in Queensland with some LNP members going off on their own little frolics. Until the LNP realise that they are the junior member of the coaltion and so have to toe the line there will be problems. One thing the ALP are is disciplined in unity,if they were not they would not be in power. Once the coalition learn that that is what is required they will be aforce to be rackoned with. Governing is a team effert, not a solo one. Its, although becoming less so, a rare occassion when Rudd is not there for any major policy annoucement. Joyce is a loose cannon and has to learn he is a bit player.

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    • Budovski:

      18 May 2010 10:18:02am

      I would say Barnaby Joyce and the rest of the National party need to decide what their party stands for. Are they a nationalist party who works in the interests of farmers and rural Australia. Or are they a party that works in the interests of the Liberal party, big multinational agriculture and the minerals council.

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  • Jason:

    18 May 2010 9:06:55am

    I can see Abbott & Co snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It amazes me sometimes how these guys are so politically inept when their career is in public service. Simple things like keeping the disagreements and dirty laundry to the party room; not disrespecting each other in public; showing a united front; getting their policy details firmly hammered out before speaking about it... I mean it's kindergarten stuff.

    If they cannot run a party with discipline, how on earth should anyone expect them to run a government? Gritting my teeth, I am concluding the only alternative to either the incompetence of Rudd, and the ill-discipline of Abbott, is the Greens. They at least are consistent.

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  • Michael:

    18 May 2010 9:28:48am

    Dissension is good for democracy. It shows that a party is able to argue and its members are able to speak freely. Members of the LNP are also able to cross the floor in parliament. These are things that should be encouraged. The Stalinist Labour party where you can not cross the floor and vote against or for for something that you believe strongly or don't is an afront to democracy.

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  • P Q:

    18 May 2010 10:35:46am

    Disagreement between Liberals and Nationals does not matter because their supporters know that together they have a chance to win elections and get benefits from the losers. It is all about self interest which is why their policies to to favour the few at the cost of many.

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  • Robert2:

    18 May 2010 11:36:19am

    Between "bumbling Barnaby the bean counter fom the bush", and "baloney Tony the smudgie buggler with the glass jaw", we are in for an interesting time. I hope Australia is capable of withstanding the onslaught.

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  • Dave:

    18 May 2010 12:17:00pm

    Labor and the Liberal & national coalition are drunk with power and their sense of their own righteousness. Yes they have down some good, so credit where credits due. What we need is electoral and parliamentary reform. Political parties govern for themselves and not the good of the country. Otherwise we would see a cross bench / party cabinet getting the right people for the right portfolio, bipartisan legislation, and no longer a need for a party whip.

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  • alexii:

    18 May 2010 12:22:20pm

    I wake up in the Sunshine state every morning to be reminded of just how useless the LNP is. At state level they have been a pathetic opposition who, by their incompetence, have let the ALP government run rough-shod over the state. This partly results from the unicameral dictatorship of the Queensland Parliament, where the LNP has consistently failed to call the erratic Bligh Government to account. The LNP are so bad, it looks likely that even with the immeasurable stupidity of the Labour Government, the ALP have every chance of re-election. Federally they simply lack talent. Poor old Barnaby, bumbling but well meeaning. The Elmer Fudd of Queensland politics. Then there is the likes of Brandis, somewhere right-wight of Genghis Khan and as warm as an August EKKA wind. This annealing of the Libs and Nats is demonstrably artificial, and will not last. The SE corner- regional divide is too strong, the Libs too precious and the Nats too stubborn.
    The LNP should congratuate themselves for stabilising a Government for so long, it just wasn't their own.

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  • Malcolm:

    18 May 2010 12:38:12pm

    Any political party unwise enough to include the reincarnated Jo Bjelke-Petersen Senator Barnaby Joyce in its ranks deserves to lose. I am stunned at the level of contempt with which the LNP holds voters.

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  • GlenWriter:

    18 May 2010 12:57:36pm

    Kevin Rudd and his government have fallen short of great expectations but they have not yet fallen on their sword.

    Rudd can still cut through because Tony Abbott also is falling short of his expectation. We expect better from both.

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  • Davidr:

    18 May 2010 1:30:59pm

    These shenagans remind me of the proverb ....If you lie down with dogs you wake up with flees.' Frankly, the Liberals are getting their just deserts by associating with the Nats. The fact that together they really stand for nothing is a product of this dysfunctional relationship. It is why we now have the worst Opposition in living memory whose only contribution is to block and prevent the Government from governing.

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