REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Thursday Nov. 29, 2007

HE lost the support of half his MPs and the Liberal organisation was calling for him to resign but a desperate Bruce Flegg clung to his leadership and consulted lawyers to prevent his party management sacking him.

Like the Black Knight in Monty Python And The Holy Grail, Dr Flegg refused to concede defeat and, like the fictional comedy character, kept fighting even when he was left without a leg to stand on.

In a day of high farce, a party-room meeting called to challenge his leadership ended after only five minutes with raised voices heard coming from the Parliament House meeting room and Dr Flegg and his three supporters storming out.

It left the eight-member Liberal parliamentary team still at a stalemate over the leadership, split evenly four-all between Dr Flegg and his challenger, Clayfield’s Tim Nicholls.

Mr Nicholls, flanked by his proposed deputy, Surfers Paradise MP John-Paul Langbroek and supporters Currumbin MP Jann Stuckey and Kawana MP Steve Dickson, later said he had attempted to move a motion to spill the leadership but Dr Flegg used his own vote to block it.

This is despite Dr Flegg repeatedly telling journalists the previous day that he would not run away from a challenge.

Mr Nicholls then tried to move a motion of ‘no confidence’ in the embattled leader but Dr Flegg used his position as chairman of the meeting to stop it.

Mr Nicholls admitted he did not know how it was all going to end.