Minor star or major embarrassment? The baffling rise of Teena McQueen

The way Teena McQueen rose to the top of the Liberal Party left cabinet ministers aghast at their federal council meeting in Sydney last year, when a factional shoulder-charge propelled her onto the party’s federal executive.

McQueen was the unlikely winner from a crude exercise in power by the angry faction of a divided gathering, where a few factional heavies were so determined to elevate one of their own that they shrugged off the damage to the wider party.

Liberal Party vice-president Tina McQueen is said to be paid about $400 every time she appears on Sky News.Credit: Sky News

Now she is a minor star or a major embarrassment, depending upon your opinion of her performance on the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night. While conservatives loved her message, she was a poor ambassador for the Liberals among the swinging voters, who they will need at the coming election.

The election of McQueen as one of the party’s vice-presidents, decided in June last year by 110 delegates to the federal council, was another sign of the gulf within the party between conservatives and moderates. It remains emblematic of the struggle among the Liberals to achieve, rather than merely promise, the unity needed to run a coherent government.

The most senior ministers in the party, including Mathias Cormann of the conservatives and Christopher Pyne of the moderates, agreed before the vote on an outcome they thought could keep the peace.

The positions being contested have limited power but a certain prestige. The party has four federal vice-presidents who are elected by the council to give members a voice in the peak committee that runs the party.

There were five candidates: Fay Duda from Western Australia, Karina Okotel from the conservative wing in Victoria, Allan Pidgeon from the conservative side of the Queensland division, Trish Worth from South Australia and McQueen.

One by one, the council confirmed Pidgeon, Okotel and Duda. That left Worth as the likely fourth vice-president, someone from the moderate wing to balance the other appointments.

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Worth was already a vice-president and was sitting at the top table during the council, but she had offended some in the party two months earlier by describing Tony Abbott as a “spoiler” and calling for unity. The conservatives wanted to send a message that the slightest criticism of the former leader could lead to retribution.

This petty vendetta was against the party’s own interests. Worth had been a federal MP for the marginal seat of Adelaide and won it against Labor at four successive elections. She had been a parliamentary secretary during the Howard government.

Of all those seeking the vice-president’s title, Worth alone knew what it meant to fight for the support of voters in the middle ground of Australian politics in a seat that could easily swing from one major party to the other.

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The vote was tight. Some of the ministers who might have voted for Worth were out of the room. McQueen won by 54 to 50. Those on the moderate side of the party in NSW were mortified that someone as experienced as Worth had been dumped in favour of a wildcard like McQueen.

All parties work best by sharing power among their members, not only when compromising on a policy but also in allocating positions. What is sometimes dismissed as horse-trading can be evidence of a mature party balancing the competing interests of its own members.

McQueen’s promotion was a breakdown in this equilibrium. Some of the leaders on the right could not control their own followers.

Cabinet ministers had good reason to worry about the rise of McQueen. Her appearance on Q&A showed the danger to the government of someone who can now express her views as a senior office-holder. But who else did they have to represent the party? Despite a desperate search, no minister could be found at short notice to replace Craig Laundy, who pulled out of the program for family reasons.

McQueen dismissed the threat from white supremacists after the terror attack in Christchurch, took a swipe at New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for “copying” the Howard government on gun control and made the case for giving Liberal preferences to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.

McQueen took a swipe at NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for "copying" the Howard government on gun control.Credit: AAP

“It’s not the Prime Minister’s decision,” McQueen said of the preferences. “That’s a decision by the federal executive. And we’ll look at it on a seat-by-seat basis.”

Will we? This was a Liberal official putting Scott Morrison in his place – a shocking look for a party that loves to mock the “faceless men” of Labor.

This was a Liberal official putting Scott Morrison in his place

Morrison was unimpressed with McQueen’s performance and let the party know. The federal president of the party, Nick Greiner, has told federal executive members they should not do media without approval.

Whether this keeps McQueen away from Sky News at night is yet to be seen. She would not comment when asked about her arrangements with the channel, but others say the payment for an appearance can be about $400 a time, and perhaps a contract worth $1000 a week.

There is no case for these payments to go to an elected politician. Another regular Sky guest, Liberal MP Craig Kelly, is not paid for his appearances. There are no rules covering office-holders such as McQueen.

Even so, this week’s experience told the conservative Liberals what happens when the message they narrow-cast on late-night Sky is broadcast to a bigger audience on the ABC. The voters recoil.

This would not matter if Morrison could win the election with the Sky News base alone, but the audience for Q&A on Monday night was about 624,000 – at least 10 times the number who tune in to Paul Murray Live on a typical weeknight on Sky.

Bill Shorten will not complain if McQueen keeps appearing on television. Morrison can only hope she stays away.

David Crowe is chief political correspondent.