LNP backs Deb Frecklington as leader as David Crisafulli rules out challenge
LNP MPs rallied around Deb Frecklington as she survived a potential coup, giving her a standing ovation after the party room moved a motion of support for her as leader. It came after David Crisafulli ruled out challenging for the leadership.
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DEB Frecklington received a standing ovation from colleagues after the party room moved a motion of support for her as leader.
Earlier, Ms Frecklington had refused to back the LNP party president staying in the job as she urged her detractors to instead focus on the Palaszczuk Government.
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Flanked by senior colleagues as she arrived at the party room meeting on Monday, Ms Frecklington insisted her team was “rock solid” and prepared to take on the Government.
When asked if LNP president David Hutchinson should resign, Ms Frecklington said that was a matter for him.
“What I would say to anyone or any detractor is … the enemy is the Palaszczuk Government and what they’ve done to our great state of ours,” she said.
“My team and I are determined to win the next election.
“We’ve got the plans and outlines in place to make sure we can kickstart this great economy of ours once again.”
Senior LNP MPs lined up to offer their support to Ms Frecklington ahead of the meeting, which brought to a head a week of unrest within the party, after two damaging internal polls were leaked to The Courier-Mail and The Sunday Mail over the weekend.
Senior LNP frontbencher Jarrod Bleijie said Mr Hutchinson should support Ms Frecklington.
“She’s going to be a terrific Premier,” he said.
“She’s got the plans in place. I’m excited about the election coming up.
“The president should back Deb like we back Deb. As I said, if he wants a great premier, he will get behind Deb.”
Mr Bleijie said he was not concerned about further leaks and insisted the focus should be on defeating Labor at the election.
Long serving LNP MP Ray Stevens said party headquarters needed to understand the party room was 100 per cent behind Ms Frecklington.
“The only poll that matters is on the 31st of October,” he said.
“The party room has not leaked one iota in the three years. All the members are going forward and showing a totally united voice behind Deb.”
Frontbencher David Janetzki said the focus should be on the election battle with Labor.
“Deb Frecklington has proven herself over the last couple of years as a leader with energy,” he said.
“She is irrepressible. She will stop at nothing to sell the message of the LNP vision across Queensland.”
Meanwhile, David Crisafulli has categorically ruled out challenging Deb Frecklington for the party leadership.
Ahead of a party room meeting ahead this afternoon, the opposition’s tourism spokesman said he had never leaked against or had a bad word to say about the leader.
“When it comes to loyalty, actions are what speak,” he told reporters.
“For one reason or another in the last 48 hours there’s been lots of reports about my activity … and working around the state,” he said, referring to a political road trip up the Queensland coast.
“Want to know why I’ve done that?
“Because I want to give the LNP a chance to win and I want Deb Frecklington to have a chance to win.”
Referring to the media gallery, he said: “There is not one person here who can say I’ve ever said a bad word about the leader or the party.”
“Not one person here can say I have ever leaked a skerrick of information.
“It’s not my style, it never will be.
“There’s 38 people in that room, not one of them can say that I have ever once said a bad word about the leader, about our prospects of winning, and I never will because that is not my style.”
Asked whether he would categorically rule out a challenge, he said: “The answer to that question is yes.”
It comes after former Queensland premier Campbell Newman denies he’s plotting to oust the opposition leader but admits he’s worried she’ll lose the October election.
Mr Newman says the Liberal National Party and parliamentary leader Deb Frecklington could see the poll slip through their fingers.
Ms Frecklington spent the weekend insisting she would lead the LNP to the election but also said backroom bully boys were trying to undermine her.
“I will not be bullied by the backroom boys of the LNP,” a defiant Ms Frecklington told reporters on Sunday.
“It is disappointing there are a few blokes sitting in the back room who want things to go back to the way things were.”
Mr Newman spent a single controversial term as premier after the LNP used him to oust John-Paul Langbroek, after a succession of poor polls.
Ms Frecklington called out her unnamed bullies after damaging internal party polling was leaked to the media, showing the LNP trailing in crucial marginal seats.
Asked about claims he was working against Ms Frecklington, Mr Newman said his job was as a political commentator these days.
“I’m simply saying that the LNP need to stand up, they need to speak up, they need to tell us with conviction what they will do for this state to turn it around,” he said.
“At the moment we’re in danger of seeing another four years of the Labor Party in this state, which would be disastrous.
“The other night on Sky News I made the point that the entire shadow cabinet could do a much better job of conveying the LNP’s alternative vision for Queensland and I was very clear that I wasn’t laying my criticisms at the lack of performance at one person’s door, being the leader,” Mr Newman said.
Asked about the tensions, one LNP frontbencher said “it’s like a horror movie from 2011”. “It’s the same faceless men trying to get their man in because Deb doesn’t owe them anything.
“Thankfully, the old days are gone.”
Ms Frecklington had her deputy leader Tim Mander with her when she faced the media on Sunday. He says suggestions of a coup are nonsense.
“Deb has my 100 per cent support and she has the support of the parliamentary wing as well,” he told reporters.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Monday said she does not care about the LNP, insisting she was focused on Queenslanders.
She said she had one clear purpose and that was to focus on the economic recovery for Queensland.
“If the LNP are so absorbed by themselves, that’s a matter for them,” she said.
Asked who would be easier to beat at the upcoming October poll - Deb Frecklington or David Crisafulli - Ms Palaszczuk said it “doesn’t really matter”.
“That’s a matter for them,” she said.
The Premier said she doesn’t take anything for granted when asked whether Labor could hold onto power in about four months time.
“We are working and focused on the economic recovery of this state,” she said.
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