Push is on to replace Malcolm Turnbull with a conservative after One Nation splintered Qld election
THE push to replace Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with a conservative leader is gaining momentum after One Nation splintered the vote at the weekend’s Queensland state election.
NSW
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THE push to replace Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with a conservative leader is gaining momentum after One Nation splintered the vote at the weekend’s Queensland state election.
But any moves against the Prime Minister will only come after the results of the New England and Bennelong by-elections are known in mid-December.
Queensland Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is set to hold office after a poor showing from the Liberal National Party, which has even left its leader Tim Nicholls precariously holding on to his own electorate.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has failed to capture many seats — but had a strong result in the bush.
One LNP MP said a conservative leader, preferably from Queensland, was required if the Coalition was to have any chance of winning the next federal poll.
Up to 10 federal Coalition MPs, including Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, could lose their seats if the 7 per cent swing against the Liberals and Nationals in Queensland was replicated at the next federal election.
“You have to win back the soft One Nation vote or you won’t be able to shift the primary,” the LNP MP said.
“Queensland certainly is essential for us to win. It was essential for John Howard to win in 1996 and hold onto until 2007. Is there the same affection from the Howard battlers coming across to Malcolm Turnbull? No there’s not.
“A conservative leader or a conservative leader from Queensland would help with that.”
The sentiment was echoed by a Coalition backbencher from Queensland who said Mr Turnbull’s leadership had little appeal for likely Liberal voters in the state who were now drifting to One Nation. But he said there were no viable alternatives. Rogue Nationals MP George Christensen yesterday issued an apology to One Nation voters, and said the Coalition needed to “listen more, work harder, stand up for conservative values and regional Queensland, and do better to win your trust and your vote”.
“I think a lot of that starts with the Turnbull government, its leadership and its policy direction,” he wrote on social media. Another backbench conservative told The Daily Telegraph the vote “makes the position for some of the policies to be more conservative”.
But they added: “I’m always against changing leaders midterm, any gain you get, the transactional cost is greater.”
Christensen ‘sorry’ to Qld One Nation voters
It comes as the Liberal Party used focus group research conducted in Queensland to dismantle the argument that negative attitudes towards the Turnbull government had influenced the defeat for Mr Nicholls. “It was a state election fought on state issues,” Mr Turnbull said yesterday. The focus group research conducted for the Liberals shows Mr Nicholls was a major issue, especially not being known enough in regional areas.
There were also concerns the LNP had strong ties to the previous Newman government, while defence and immigration were the top federal issues. The LNP’s primary vote was lower than 20 per cent in 13 seats, contributing to the argument that the party had lost its base.
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