‘You need to do this’: Dutton urged Crisafulli to be ruthless on party reform

Both Defence Minister Peter Dutton and Prime Minister Scott Morrison advised LNP leader David Crisafulli to be ruthless and back party reform or risk losing his chance to become premier.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton leaned in to LNP leader David Crisafulli and told him that he had a choice.

He could back party reform and become premier, or squib it and miss an opportunity to revive the party.

Dutton told him he had to sever ties with Old Guard supremo Bruce McIver and Co, who had run the show for years.

“If you’re as ruthless as I think you are, you need to do this or face the same fate as the other LNP leaders,’’ Dutton said.

Just 24 hours earlier he had picked up a call from Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

He too didn’t mince his words with the newly minted LNP parliamentary leader.

“Unless you reform the party, you will join a conga line of failed LNP leaders,’’ the PM told Crisafulli.

Peter Dutton, the Minister for Defence, told David Crisafulli to be ‘as ruthless as I think you are’ when it came to party reform.

Crisafulli had the two most senior Liberal politicians in the country giving him the same advice.

Would he live like a lion for the next six months and tackle the elephant in the room, or take the easy decision – not to make the decision – and almost certainly fail in three years time.

Crisafulli took the lion route and decided early on in his leadership that the organisational wing of the party had to change.

It was a tough process. He had to eyeball acting president Cynthia Hardy and tell her that her presidency ambition was just that – ambition.

He had to terminate the relationships with the people who put him in the top job. A new broom was required, from the top down. White hot anger among grassroots members were evident at every branch meeting he attended.

In close consultation with Queensland’s most senior Federal Minister, Peter Dutton, with party powerbroker Santo Santoro pulling the strings behind the scenes, Operation Save the LNP had begun.

The aim was to get rid of several powerbrokers, whose abrasive and arrogant style had led to many members deserting the party. Crisafulli realised that the members were demanding change.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a press conference at The Lodge in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Crisafulli knew he had to seize the day. What also emerged in branch meetings across the state was anger at the way the organisation ruled like a fiefdom, driving good people away.

Also evident to Crisafulli and the members was that Ms Hardy and her executive cronies would say and do anything to hold onto power.

After the Courier Mail-Sunday Mail War Within series which exposed the dysfunctionality and the tactics of the Old Guard, Ms Hardy turned into Sergeant Schulz from the hit American comedy, Hogan’s heroes.

Schulz was renowned for saying “I know nothing’’ when confronted with a problem. It undermined the entire German war effort.

In an email to members, Ms Hardy described the newspaper series as a work of fiction.

She then doubled down, saying those who had gone on the record of the 42 interviews conducted, were “cowards’’.

She was referring to party luminaries such as Springborg, former premier Rob Borbidge, former deputy premier Jeff Seeney, Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner and former federal Minister Gary Hardgrave.

David Crisafulli, the Liberal National Party leader, at the LNP Conference. Photo: Steve Pohlner

That assessment from Ms Hardy quickly galvanised the branches. They knew the story was 100 per cent correct and they knew it was now or never to replace the existing overlords.

With the PM’s advice ringing in his ears, Crisafulli, Dutton and federal agriculture Minister David Littleproud started plotting the coup.

The revolution was coming. Unsurprisingly, it took little persuasion for branch members to join the reform process.

The momentum had changed after the newspaper series.

They’d watched successive state leaders over the past decade knifed by headquarters, desperate to keep its power base.

The final hurdle was convincing one of the party elders to take the top job. Only three names were considered.

Springborg, former Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk and former premier Rob Borbidge. It needed a heavy hitter.

L to R, Barnaby Joyce MP Leader of The Nationals and Deputy Prime Minister Minister, Lawrence Springborg, LNP party president and Peter Dutton, the Minister for Defence at the LNP Conference. Photo: Steve Pohlner

All three expressed reservations because of the current commitments. Springborg, after much deliberation, agreed to take over the presidency.

He was overwhelmingly elected to the post last weekend. Crisafulli and the reformists got a clean sweep, with two new vice-presidents, Amanda Cooper and Natalie Marr.

They also disbanded the powerful president’s executive, which was the power base for the incumbents.

There are some within the LNP who see the reform as a takeover by the MPs. That may well be true but the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and that’s what the LNP had been doing.

They have to try something to compete against the well-oiled Labor machine, which uses every trick in the book to win.

A senior LNP source said the new broom was about restoring integrity.

“Nobody is more respected in conservative politics in Queensland than Lawrence Springborg,’’ said the source.

Crisafulli had to eyeball acting president Cynthia Hardy and tell her that her presidency ambition was just that – ambition.

“The Old Guard had been demoralised and discredited and the reform gives Crisafulli the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle to get on and be premier.

“David was never going to be premier with the existing model, where the squabbling sabotaged our election prospects.’’

Time will tell. There is a good chance that premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will run again in 2024, and she will be hard to beat.

But as we’ve seen, a week is a long time in politics. Three years is an eternity.