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Howard can improve his batting by concentrating on the issues, not his average

By Graham Young - posted Friday, 15 June 2001


Senior Queensland office-bearers then led a public campaign of resistance threatening to take the federal party to court. The federal party backed down, essentially because it did not have the stomach for a public fight. Instead of taking over completely it put in place an administrative committee where the Queenslanders had the numbers. The committee is to report after the next federal election when everyone’s focus will have moved on from the failures in Queensland.

The federal party did have a minor victory. It gets to run the next federal campaign, and raise the funds for it. As the Queenslanders are abject failures in both departments they were happy to trade that for control of membership and preselections.

The federal party also allowed the Queenslanders to hold their state convention last weekend. For public consumption the talk from the Prime Minister down was that the party was now unified, and was preparing for the federal election. The reality is otherwise.

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The administrative committee provided for the appointment of three members-at-large. These people are to be selected by consensus, but the Santoro/Carroll faction has already circulated a blacklist of people it will not entertain at all and to date there has been consensus on no-one. Another position is available to be filled by a businessperson. The committee has not been able to find one brave enough to take it.

Despite the existence of the Administrative Committee the federal party has also allowed the state division to change its preselection procedures in a way that legitimises activity that should have been outlawed as encouraging branch stacking. The state division has also instituted a disciplinary committee. Moving the establishment of this committee key Santoro/Carroll factional heavy Senator George Brandis referred to the role it would play in dealing with "traitors" in the party. Many members saw "traitors" as being synonomous with "enemies of the dominant faction".

What has become quite clear is that the "intervention" by the federal party is a failure in terms of reforming the state branch. It is now no more than a public-relations exercise to get the Queensland party past the next federal election. Once there, the Prime Minister has his record and what becomes of the Queensland Liberals is for others to worry about.

John Howard has a warm regard for Mark Taylor. Taylor had a long form slump, but the selectors were prepared to accommodate him and he came back. He is retired now, but his average is not too bad. Just like Taylor, Howard is having a form slump, but the Australian electorate is less tolerant than the Australian selectors – they won’t give him much time to recover. There is only one way for Howard to retire with a good average. He has to concentrate on playing the game to the best of his ability and taking decision for the long term, not merely for short-term gain. At the most he has two or three months to work out how to do that.

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About the Author

Graham Young is chief editor and the publisher of On Line Opinion. He is executive director of the Australian Institute for Progress, an Australian think tank based in Brisbane, and the publisher of On Line Opinion.

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