Regions think LNP ‘run by toffs’

Former Nationals senator Ron Boswell has blamed the merger of Queensland’s conservative parties for its loss.

Ron Boswell, left, passes a protester wearing a Pauline Hanson mask last week. Picture: AAP

Former Nationals senator Ron Boswell has blamed the 2008 merger of Queensland’s conservative parties for the state election loss, saying it “doesn’t work’’ against a resurgent One Nation in the regions.

The retired Queensland senator, who led the federal Coalition fight against Pauline Hanson’s party in the late 1990s, said many regional voters could not identify with the Liberal National Party and thought it was run by “the toffs in (Brisbane suburb) Ascot’’.

Mr Boswell echoed comments yesterday by federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan, saying Queensland Nationals, who maintain a separate partyroom from the Liberals in Canberra, had to retain their identity to fight off One Nation at the next federal election.

The merger, the decision to preference One Nation ahead of Labor and the Greens, and Labor’s massive advertising blitz — warning of “cuts and chaos’’ and the spectre of LNP-One Nation minority government — are being cited by party insiders for the loss. While Mr Boswell did not call for a demerger of the LNP, he said the connection had been a critical factor in the swing from the LNP to One Nation in the regions.

“I just don’t think it works,’’ he said. “When you look at when they (One Nation) first ran, we fought them off as a National Party in a federal campaign — we won every one of our seats and took a seat from the Liberals.

“It’s very, very difficult to do that as the LNP; the blue-collar workers don’t identify, don’t under­stand it, they just think it’s run by toffs in Ascot. The two parties have different value systems and identities, and I think the people who voted for One Nation would have stuck with candidates from the Nationals.’’

LNP leader Tim Nicholls’s seat of Clayfield takes in Ascot.

However, several senior LNP insiders, who declined to be named, rejected the criticism, saying the LNP had its biggest state win, in 2012, as a merged party. “And the only time One Nation did very well in the state sphere, in 1998 when they won 11 seats, was before the merger,’’ one said.

Mr Boswell said the LNP decision to preference One Nation was a mistake; he had warned this could turn off moderate LNP voters in the southeast and make it easier for conservative voters to switch to the protest party.

Former LNP MP Vaughan Johnson agreed the merger was hurting. “Even though at the time I supported it, I don’t support it now,” he said, calling on the LNP and the federal Coalition to stop its “bullshit” treatment of regions.

LNP president Gary Spence said he did not think the preference decision “made one bit of difference’’, saying the party had consulted widely and decided on a seat-by-seat basis.

Senator Canavan, a Rockhampton National, said the federal Coalition was in a better position to fight off One Nation because the Nationals had a separate partyroom. “This is confirmation of how important it is to have a strong Nationals Party at a federal level,” he said, after the LNP suffered an 8 per cent swing against it.

A senior LNP insider said the decision last year to dump veteran MP Lawrence Springborg as leader for Mr Nicholls had damaged the party.

The LNP was also hamstrung by a reduced budget.