REMEMBER WHEN

STUBBORN Liberal Party president Mal Brough was slapped down for the second time in a week by his party’s governing body, with the state council again rejecting his leadership demands which almost scuttled the merger of Queensland’s conservative parties.

An extraordinary meeting instead confirmed the powerful body’s overwhelming determination to go through with the merger by about 40 votes to six.

Instead of backing Mr Brough as he had hoped, the state council forced him to move a motion affirming support for the merger.

In contrast to the urgent meeting earlier that week which went for a marathon six hours, this meeting lasted less than an hour.

Mr Brough’s attempt to get support for his push to be handed the presidency of the newly merged party by calling for the intervention of federal president Alan Stockdale backfired with Mr Stockdale, instead, successfully reopening negotiations with the Nationals earlier in the day.

Although the matter of who would be president of the new party has still not been resolved, Mr Stockdale gave Nationals president Bruce McIver several compromise options, including sharing the leadership by having joint or rotating presidents, and was confident they would reach an understanding.

The Nationals were determined to have the president chosen by the new party’s convention delegates but Mr Brough wanted the role handed to the incumbent Liberal president – himself.