Remember When
TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2004
A BITTER row over Gold Coast seats led to a split between the National and Liberal parties just as they were about to sign a new ‘marriage’ agreement.
National Party officials and leader Lawrence Springborg reportedly ‘went berserk’ and stormed out of a meeting after the Liberal Party unexpectedly insisted it should run in all seats on the Coast at future elections.
Negotiations for a new coalition agreement were expected to be a formality but turned farcical when the Nats insisted the position of deputy Opposition leader go to its deputy Jeff Seeney and the Liberals retaliated by demanding the Nats withdraw from the Gold Coast.
Liberal leader Bob Quinn was surprisingly absent from the talks, led by Liberal state president Michael Caltabiano.
The five Liberal MPS were told they would have to go it alone l when h state t parliament resumed, cut off from Opposition resources and possibly losing up to six staff members.
If the two conservative parties are unable to forge a new coalition, they were warned the Labor Party would basically be handed long-term power in Queensland.
The National Party planned to announce its own shadow Cabinet, hoping that will force a repentant Liberal Party back to the negotiating table.
Mr Springborg said the Coast seats of Burleigh and Broadwater, long considered National Party heartland, were not negotiable.
“Of course that was totally unacceptable to us,” he said.
“There were seats in southeast Queensland where the Nationals were unable to win and seats in southeast Queensland where the Liberal Party was unable to win.
“To simply say that any party should vacate those particular seats at this stage is not proper because there is a lot of work, consideration, discussion and research that needs to go into that.”
Mr Springborg hinted the stalemate was a ploy designed by the Liberals’ organisational arm.
“If this had been left to Bob Quinn and myself on our own then we would have had a coalition renegotiated two weeks ago,” said Mr Springborg. “This is not Bob Quinn’s fault.”
Mr Springborg used the rupture to illustrate the need for a united conservative party in Queensland, a push which has also angered the Liberal Party.
“What we have seen happen in the last few days underscores the need for a new united conservative party in Queensland because it stops this sort of rubbish,” he said.
The parties would ultimately merge in 2008 to form the Liberal National Party but tensions between both sides continue today.