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In the name of God, go! Advice to the Queensland Liberal Party.

By David Fraser - posted Tuesday, 8 May 2001


Some 350 years ago Britain was plunged into a bitter Civil War which saw the forces of Parliament and the King pitted against each other. At the height of the conflict Cromwell, believing Parliament was no longer fit to conduct the affairs of the nation, declared:

"You have sat too long for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go."

The time has now arrived for the State Executive of the Liberal Party in Queensland to heed Cromwell’s advice.

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Executive’s stewardship over recent years, and over the past twelve months in particular, has been characterised by incompetence, failure, lack of imagination and an unprecedented degree of short-sightedness. It is this record that led the Liberal Party to its worst electoral defeat in over 50 years.

On 17 February the Liberal Party received 14.3% of the vote and returned 3 members to State Parliament. Until this election the nadir of the Liberal Party’s performance had been in 1983 with 14.9% of the vote and 8 members returned. However, when it is recalled that that election saw the ending of the Coalition after 26 years in office and unprecedented bitterness between the Liberal and National Parties, the 2001 result is even more appalling.

The one consolation in 2001 is that the Liberal Party outpolled its Coalition partners, the Nationals, by some 3,500 votes. However, with the combined Coalition vote not even reaching 29 % this is cold comfort indeed. The Liberal Party cannot hope to win government by simply outpolling the Nationals.

There is no doubt that State Executive was aware of the task ahead of it. In the State Executive report to the 2000 State Convention the President , Con Galtos, stated:

"There is a huge amount of work needed, not only from our Parliamentary Party, but also from the organization, in order to wrest power from this increasingly out of touch Labor administration …".

Robin Fardoulys, State Vice-President and Chairman of the Central Campaign Committee, outlined the Liberal Party’s electoral objectives to the State Convention:

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"The challenge at the next State election will be to pick up the ground lost in 1998 and the challenge is one for both the parliamentary wing and the organisation working together to break down the popularity of the current State Government and to capture ground in a strategic and focussed manner."

In 1998 the Liberal Party lost 6 of its 15 seats and saw its vote plummet from 22.7% in 1995 to a mere 16.1%. There is little doubt that this can be attributed to the foolish decision, championed by then Party President, Bob Carroll, to reward One Nation candidates with Liberal preferences.

Not only did the Party fail to win back these votes and seats in 2001 it suffered further reverses – an additional 1.8% of the vote was lost as were another 6 seats. In less than six years the Liberal Party lost nearly 40% of its State voting support and 80% of its State parliamentarians.

Executive failed to meet the benchmarks it set itself.

In the face of this performance how did the members of State Executive respond?

Twelve members of State Executive are elected at the Party’s Annual Convention – the President, 5 Vice-Presidents and 6 members of Executive. When nominations closed last month for the 2001 Convention, only 3 of the 12 saw fit not to seek re-election. One of these is the current State President, Con Galtos.

Presumably the remaining 9 members regard their performance as sufficiently creditable to warrant re-election. The fact that they have presided over the Liberal Party’s worst election performance appears to be of absolutely no consequence to them.

It is reassuring that this complacent attitude has not been adopted by the Party’s Federal Executive. Media reports indicate the Federal Executive, as it is entitled, proposed a new administrative committee would be appointed to run the affairs of the Queensland Division in an effort to overcome its financial difficulties and endeavour to restore its electoral fortunes. With 4 Federal seats held by the Liberal Party in Queensland with margins of less than 1% (Herbert, Longman, Moreton and Petrie) the concern of the Federal Executive is not hard to understand.

The response from Queensland to date has been characteristically unco-operative. Former President, Bob Carroll, has been reported ("The Courier Mail", 7 May 2001) as saying that intervention was "neither fair nor necessary" and that Party members should be able to choose their own Executive at the State Convention next month.

Carroll offered as an alternative an Executive led by another former President, Senator John Herron, claiming the party’s "different groups had hammered out their own reform plan".

The fact that the Liberal Party’s principal informal faction had visited the current sorry state of affairs on the organisation seems to have escaped Carroll and his supporters. Why Party members would embrace a solution conceived by factions is difficult to understand.

The Liberal Party in Queensland is like a bed-ridden patient who, rather than accept the assistance of qualified medical professionals, relies upon the nostrums of quacks and faith healers for a cure. As in most such cases, the prognosis is not encouraging.

In the dark days of 1940 as the German army unleashed itself on Western Europe the House of Commons debated the course of the war and the stewardship of the Conservative Chamberlain Government. Leo Amery, a former Conservative Minister and a colleague of Chamberlain , called for a leadership change to meet the challenge posed by the German threat.

Amery declared:

"Somehow or other we must get into Government men who can match our enemies in fighting spirit, in daring, in resolution and in thirst for victory…It may not be easy to find these men. They can be found only by trial and by ruthlessly discarding all who fail and have their failings discovered. We are fighting today for our life, for our liberty, for our all; we cannot go on being led as we are."

The outlook was darker, the challenge was greater and the stakes were higher. However, the parallels are obvious.

The Liberal Party in Queensland faces dark times indeed; we face great challenges; the political stakes are high; yet we cannot afford to fail.

In their own way Cromwell and Amery have sound advice for the Liberal Party. If we fail to seize the opportunities that are presented to us we will be condemned to a pitiful future.

Those charged with the management of the Party have failed dismally. They are no longer part of the solution; they are part of the problem. The Federal Executive has thrown the Queensland Liberal Party a lifeline. Queensland Liberals should seize it with both hands.

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About the Author

David Fraser is a former State Director of the Queensland Division of the Liberal Party and a member of State Executive between 1994 and 1996.

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