The Australian -
SENIOR Nationals have hatched a plan to breach the constitution of Queensland's Liberal National Party to ensure that a National takes the Senate spot of Barnaby Joyce if he shifts to the House of Representatives. The move has shaken the Liberal Party, which is guaranteed the spot under the LNP constitution if it is vacated, and threatens to split the recently formed LNP in the run-up to a state election.
Liberal sources said federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull had told the LNP leadership through intermediaries that the plan was unacceptable to him and to the Liberal Party. Mr Turnbull declined to comment yesterday.
The Australian revealed this month that former prime minister John Howard had urged the Nationals Senate leader to move to the lower house in a bid to woo back voters lost at the 2007 poll.
Senator Joyce said then that if a Coalition seat did not become available in the current parliamentary term, he would consider contesting one of five seats held by Labor or independents at the next election -- New England or Page in NSW; or Leichhardt, Dawson or Flynn in Queensland.
The LNP constitution says if a Senate spot is vacated by an LNP senator, any sitting party senator who seeks endorsement for the position will be endorsed by the LNP. The constitution includes a grandfathering clause that ensures the endorsement of sitting MPs for the next election.
Senator Joyce holds the second spot on the Queensland LNP Senate ticket. If he quits the Senate, Liberal senator Brett Mason moves up from third position to take his spot.
Under the grandfathering clause, Senator Mason's spot would be taken by Liberal senator Russell Trood, who holds the unwinnable fourth position on the ticket.
With Liberal senator George Brandis heading the ticket, the Liberals would therefore win all three LNP Senate spots if the upper house vote at the 2007 election was reflected in the next half-Senate poll.
LNP strategists said if the constitution were complied with, Senator Joyce's move would cost the Nationals one of only four Senate positions the party holds nationally.
However, LNP sources said Senator Joyce and Queensland Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg believed that the senator's spot "belongs" to the Nationals.
The Nationals-dominated LNP leadership intends to endorse Brisbane accountant and businessman David Goodwin for Senator Joyce's Senate spot. Mr Goodwin, 31, a former Young National who was on the Coalition Senate ticket below Senator Joyce at the 2007 poll, is a director of shipping company Interport and a campaigner for what he has described as conservative family values.
Mr Goodwin said yesterday he expected he would be receptive to any approach from the LNP to replace Senator Joyce. "I certainly continue to be interested in politics and getting involved at the Senate level," he said.
Mr Goodwin declined to comment on whether he was concerned that his preselection would breach the LNP constitution if Senator Trood sought Senator Joyce's spot. Liberal sources said Senator Trood would be a candidate for the position.
The constitutional provision was a concession to him when he was dropped to the fourth spot on the LNP Senate ticket. The LNP move has angered Liberals from all factions, including those that backed the controversial merging of the state coalition partners to form the LNP last July.
Pro-merger Liberals, including Senate leader Nick Minchin, have made clear to the LNP their view that the move would not be tolerated by the Liberals' federal leadership.
Mr Springborg, who has pointed to the LNP as a model for coalition unity, declined to comment. Senator Joyce is understood to be consulting his wife, Natalie, before making a decision about whether to seek to switch to the lower house before the election due in 2010, or to contest the seat at the poll.
Meanwhile, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, who returned to work yesterday from her holidays, is widely expected to call an election for next month or March, although her term does not expire until later this year.