By Ace Political Roundsman Argus Tuft
The three day Liberal National Party State Convention was an unmitigated disaster and the grim and apprehensive facial expressions on key figures there backed up the comment by Attorney-General Senator George Brandis that the Queensland LNP are a mediocre bunch of bananas . A fair and obvious statement -and you do not need a second legal opinion to come to this conclusion .
Televised coverage of the meeting during the astonishing address by babbling Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce in which he bizarrely warned the Opposition would launch a massive election scare campaign involving spiders in your coffee and possums in your roof !!!! resulted in what could only be described as a gobsmacked audience . He used State of Origin footie language to urge the disintegrating LNP to run onto the paddock (avoiding flung dung ) behind the team leader-this month-Malcolm Bligh Turnbull.
His weird outburst was similar to the recent statement in which he mentioned testicles and terrorists in one sentence. This is the guy who could become Prime Minister in the event that the real PM , Malcolm Turnbull , a loyal Elizabethan , like Sir Francis Drake , sails off to fight the Spanish led by the Mad Monk at Warringah and disappears at sea , not run down by a bus , leaving Barnaby in charge of the floundering ship of state .
One of those in the audience, looking expressionless, was Lawrence Springborg , the so called father of the unhappy Liberal and National Party integration in Queensland , who has announced he will not contest the next state election . However, there is speculation that he may run for the Senate as there is talk of Senator Brandis quitting politics , possibly taking up a post in London , recently seen there quaffing an ale at a trendy spa with Immigration Minister Peter Dutton , who could figure in a cabinet reshuffle later this year.
Of interest to the Queensland LNP is further speculation that the federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs , Nigel Scullion, of Darwin , is also going to resign and this portfolio would be claimed by the Sunshine State .
Before the conference was a motion to privatise the national broadcaster . Jawboner Joyce is no fan of the ABC , although he admitted liking Phillip Adams of Late Night Live, Radio National , even though he is "a lefty" , who just turned 78 .
Many delegates came away from the Brisbane blathering believing the unhappy LNP has both feet on a diseased, slippery banana skin due to the unpopular leader , Tim Nicholls , defections to the One Nation drones , Prime Minister Turnbull's failure to support the state's full claim for cyclone reconstruction funds . Even though support was strongly voiced for coal , there is deep concern by a considerable number of sane, fair minded Queensland voters of various political persuasion about the Adani proposal , as there is nationally and internationally .
