Qld: State of decay

AAP General News (Australia)
12-07-2007
Qld: State of decay

By Paul Osborne

BRISBANE, Dec 7 AAP - Decay has been on the minds of government and opposition figures
alike in Queensland this week.

While Premier Anna Bligh finally dealt with the ongoing embarrassment of Queensland
being the only state not to have fluoride in its drinking water, the Liberal Party was
dealing with decay in their popular support amid a bitter leadership battle and a federal
election loss.

Ironically, one of the key figures behind the Liberal leadership stoush - Gold Coast
MP John-Paul Langbroek - is a dentist.

The government finally bit the bullet on water fluoridation, setting out a timetable
to ensure 80 per cent of Queenslanders would be drinking fluoridated water within two
years, growing to 95 per cent by 2012.

The move was widely welcomed as essential to improving dental health, especially in children.

It was the one positive in a week that was dominated by the final result of a build-up
of plaque in the Liberal Party, which started with Bruce Flegg seizing the leadership
from Bob Quinn in August 2006.

Sixteen months on from Dr Flegg's coup, he has been replaced by his deputy Mark McArdle.

Dr Flegg was an inexperienced, first-term MP when he seized the leadership.

The former Brisbane GP's leadership takeover was a key trigger for the September 2006
state election as then premier Peter Beattie took advantage of opposition disarray.

Coalition strategists had to tear up their plans for a campaign involving the experienced
team of Nationals leader Lawrence Springborg and Mr Quinn and find a way to promote a
unified face to voters.

At their first media conference, Mr Springborg and Dr Flegg could not answer a simple
question about who would be premier if they won government - a question that dogged them
for the rest of their failed campaign.

The campaign itself was an unmitigated disaster for the coalition, with three notable examples.

Dr Flegg was asked to leave a shopping centre for failing to obtain permission to do
a campaign walk-through.

In a radio interview he admitted to having "blonde moments".

And at a media conference on the teaching of Australian history he failed to correctly
answer journalists' questions on the date of arrival of the Second Fleet (1790), or the
person after whom Brisbane was named (former governor of NSW Sir Thomas Brisbane).

The election propelled Tim Nicholls, a 42-year-old former lawyer and Brisbane City
councillor, into parliament.

After six months of sitting in parliament watching the Liberal leader fail to gain
any traction with voters, the Clayfield MP - backed by party powerbrokers Santo Santoro
and Michael Caltabiano - went public with his desire to challenge.

Figures within the Liberal Party organisation were also concerned Dr Flegg was making
the Howard government's re-election chances more difficult.

The problem was highlighted by Dr Flegg's opposition to a project the then prime minister
had personally promoted - the Goodna bypass in Brisbane's outer west.

But Mr Nicholls failed to gain the support of four other colleagues needed to unseat Dr Flegg.

Fears of the Queensland Liberal "brand" being stained were given fresh impetus with
the election of the Rudd Labor government, on the back of a strong result for the ALP
in the Sunshine State.

The Nicholls backers were determined to fix the problem and a media conference was
called to publicly announce a challenge, despite Mr Nicholls and proposed deputy Mr Langbroek
knowing they did not have the numbers to win.

"I think the outcome of the federal election has ... led to a spur for renewal from
the Liberal Party," Mr Nicholls told reporters.

A meeting of the party's eight MPs was called but Dr Flegg refused to open the leadership
to a vote.

The Liberal Party's state council then stepped in, accusing Dr Flegg of breaching a
long-held convention of allowing a vote on the leadership if an MP demanded a challenge.

Dr Flegg then agreed to a fresh vote and offered to step aside, but snubbed Mr Nicholls
by publicly calling for his deputy Mark McArdle to become leader.

After a farcical day of debate, which amusingly included media commentary by Monty
Python star Eric Idle - who happened to be staying at the same hotel as the Liberal MPs
were meeting - the party remained leaderless.

Asked what he thought of the leadership fight being labelled "Pythonesque", Idle told
reporters: "I think that's slightly insulting to Monty Python, don't you? I think we are
slightly more successful."

The option of drawing a name out of a hat was floated as a serious option by Gold Coast
MP Ray Stevens before yesterday's meeting.

But the party finally compromised and Mr Nicholls settled on the second prize of being
deputy to 50-year-old former solicitor, Mark McArdle - the Liberals' fifth leader in a
decade.

Mr McArdle admitted Queenslanders now had a "negative view" of the Liberal Party, but
put a positive spin on the outcome.

"I'm going to say to the people of Queensland right now don't gauge us today - look
at what we do over time, look at how we plan and work together for the future," he said.

But it may take many months for the Liberals to brush up their image after such a public
gnashing.

AAP pjo/lh/de

KEYWORD: NEWSCOPE QLD (AAP NEWS ANALYSIS)

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