'People don't want One Nation': the LNP gets a warning from within
The Liberal National coalition is headed for electoral disaster time and time again if it continues to align itself with One Nation, party sources have warned, as the Queensland election fallout turns federal.
Labor is yet to claim a majority victory after Saturday’s poll but remains the only party with a chance of doing so. The LNP has gone backwards from its 2015 result.
Some within the LNP point the finger at the decision to directly preference One Nation in 50 of the 61 seats it was running in, leaving the party open to the accusation of having aligned with Pauline Hanson; and to “federal instability”, with prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership coming under attack.
“The perception is he is just not in control, and we couldn’t use him anywhere,” one LNP source said. “Throw in citizenship and then the headlines that parliament had been cancelled … I just, well, if they couldn’t help, the least they could have done is not be a fucking hindrance.”
But former premier and party stalwart Rob Borbidge said any LNP members blaming federal issues needed to have a closer look at what happened at a state level, particularly the decision to side with One Nation.
“I wonder how many elections we have to lose before the LNP learn the lessons of history,” he told Guardian Australia.
“One Nation cost us the 98 election and the 2001 election and helped propel Labor to power in Western Australia.
“One Nation is toxic in south-east Queensland. That decision drove moderate voters to other parties and eroded our own party vote, which dropped dramatically. This decision by the LNP to play with One Nation has cost us government on three occasions, ended the careers of some our best and most talented MPs and it is beyond time the LNP looks at this and realises it is dangerous and wrong.”
While the result has been used by some in the federal sphere – particularly Dawson MP George Christensen, who apologised to voters for the Turnbull government – as a rallying call to shift further to the right, Borbidge said voters had proved time and time again they craved moderation.
“When you leave the middle of politics, you run into trouble. When Labor shifted further to the left, they ran into trouble and when we go further to the right, the same things happen. It is just a political reality and we have just seen that happen.”
The LNP executive announced its preference decision at the halfway point of the campaign, giving Labor a chance to reset and attack by pointing out the “chaos” of a LNP-One Nation coalition.
“And that is where we lost it,” a LNP campaigner said. “All those voters in Brisbane – and you have to win Brisbane – they don’t like One Nation. And while they [One Nation] did OK in the regions, they didn’t preference us.
“The feds have normalised [Pauline Hanson]. They have tried to say she is OK, because they have to work with her, and that is why this has happened.
“The ones who are getting the most attention out of Canberra keep saying that One Nation is what people want from their conservative politics; that we need to have them onside, or inside the tent. But you know what we keep proving? That people don’t want One Nation. That they have a choice and by and large they don’t pick it.
“We just keep losing on this and we’ll probably just repeat it at the next federal election.”
Speaking in the Senate on Monday the attorney general, George Brandis, blamed state issues for the Queensland loss, including the Adani coalmine; and said the legacy of the unpopular Newman government – for which the LNP leader, Tim Nicholls, served as treasurer and onepoint of the so-called “troika” of power blamed for many decisions – cost the LNP.
Labor’s decision to veto the Adani loan was seen by some as helping to save some inner-city seats, or at the very least prove enough of a concern in inner-city “teal” seats, where Liberal voters have begun to flirt with the Greens, to cost the LNP.
But Brandis, still rumoured to be on his way out of the Senate for an overseas posting, which many of his Queensland colleagues believe has helped free him to speak his mind on issues such as One Nation more publicly, was also critical of the LNP decision.
“Flirting with One Nation is poison for either side of politics and my attitude to One Nation, with whom I deal courteously and professionally in this chamber by the way, nevertheless, is that [it] has nothing to offer the people of Queensland,” he said.
The Queensland fallout has divided the party, as nervous members look ahead to the next federal election, and just how it can lure voters back.
“I can tell you one thing that will help, right now,” another LNP member said.
“We should never touch One Nation. It’s a joke. We had it right the last time. We keep giving them power and we keep getting burnt. It is about time we concentrated on getting our own house in order and leave theirs well alone, or we will have no hope of winning elections.
I wonder how many elections we have to lose before the LNP learn the lessons of history