LNP senator Gerard Rennick rails against party’s ‘faceless men’

LNP senator Gerard Rennick has urged party powerbrokers to not let the LNP be ruled by ‘faceless men’ as he fights to appeal a members’ vote that saw him kicked off the Queensland Senate ticket.

LNP senator Gerard Rennick. Picture: NewsWire / Tertius Pickard

Liberal National Party senator Gerard Rennick has urged party powerbrokers to not let the party be ruled by “faceless men” as he fights to appeal a members’ vote that saw him kicked off the Queensland Senate ticket.

The LNP’s state council will meet in Brisbane on Friday, and Senator Rennick has written to all councillors in an attempt to force a new vote for the third Senate spot.

The first-term senator, who was beaten by just three votes by then-LNP treasurer Stuart Fraser at a state council meeting in July last year, alleges there were ­“irregularities” with how the ­ballot was run.

In his letter to councillors on Thursday afternoon, Senator Rennick said the irregularities – including federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton being denied a proxy or representative vote – should not be allowed to “go ­unanswered”.

“If the party officials can deny Peter Dutton a vote, what else can they do?” Senator Rennick said.

He told councillors to “let’s not become the Labor Party, run by faceless men” and challenged his colleagues to “uphold state council’s democratic rights”.

“This is the first opportunity since 2021 for an appeal to be heard and state executive is trying to shut it down,” Senator Rennick said. “It is clear state executive is not accepting the desire of state councillors for greater transparency and scrutiny of party ­processes.”

In June, Supreme Court judge Glenn Martin decided that Senator Rennick had lodged legal action too late and ordered he pay the party’s costs, but Justice Martin did not rule on the facts of the case.

After the judgment, party president Lawrence Springborg – a minister in the one-term Campbell Newman state government – wrote to members saying the matter had been settled, a point disputed by Senator Rennick.

The maverick Queenslander has spent this week rallying support to refuse ratification of a state executive decision to block any further appeal.

After the state council meeting, Brisbane lord mayor Adrian Schrinner will open the LNP convention on Friday morning, before Mr Dutton and Nat­ionals leader David Littleproud address the members on Saturday.

Queensland Opposition Leader David Crisafulli will deliver a speech to close the convention on Sunday, but not before members have the chance to vote on up to 170 resolutions put by local ­branches and policy committees.

While Mr Dutton’s nuclear power policy – which would see seven nuclear reactors built across Australia, including two in Queensland – is not officially a subject of any resolution, it is ­expected to be debated in closed session.

Mr Crisafulli has repeatedly said the Queensland LNP would not lift the state’s nuclear ban if it wins the October election.

In the mix are calls for a future Dutton government to remove the tax-deductible status of green lobby groups such as Greenpeace, to order a royal commission into the Bureau of Meteorology, to drastically cut migration to fewer than 50,000 people a year for the next decade, and to ban puberty blockers for minors.

Resolutions will also be put to urge Mr Crisafulli, should he become premier in October, to take pepper spray off the restricted weapons list and make it legal to use for self-defence, to oppose the World Heritage listing of Cape York Peninsula, and order ­periodic reviews of the performance of judges and magistrates.