Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister has declared:

If there is to be a single party in Queensland, then the only basis on which I would accept a single party in Queensland would be the Liberal Party.

The Prime Minister is meeting Queensland federal Liberal MPs tonight to declare his total opposition to a merged party. So let us be clear that this is not a merger but a takeover of the Queensland Nationals by the Liberals. It is a capitulation by the Queensland Nationals. It is a capitulation by the member for Dawson, who has pretended to fight the privatisation of Telstra as a National but who now will join the very Liberals who have led the privatisation push. It is a capitulation by the member for Hinkler, who would now run as a Liberal. And it is a capitulation by the member for Wide Bay, the Deputy Leader of the National Party, who has joined us here tonight but who is now to become a Liberal. ‘Warren Truss, Liberal candidate for Wide Bay’ has a certain ring about it, don’t you think?

I will chance my arm on the forthcoming redistribution and predict that a new seat will be in the Hinkler-Wide Bay area because both of those are heavily over quota, and that too would be contested by a Liberal. It is a capitulation by Senators Ron Boswell and Barnaby Joyce. We all know that Senator Boswell has long been a closet Liberal, but Senator Joyce has paraded himself as a fiercely independent Queensland National who stands up against the Liberals. Senator Joyce is set to join the Liberals. No more photos of angry confrontations between Senator Heffernan and Senator Joyce in the Senate. They are about to become the best of friends, bosom buddies. Senator Joyce complained about an election letter signed by the Prime Minister introducing his Senate team that failed to include Senator Joyce as a team member. Next time around the Liberals will include Senator Joyce on their team, but in the unwinnable No. 4 spot.

Queensland National Party members might think that they can run as candidates for some sort of federal National Party, but they would be candidates for a National Party controlled 100 per cent by the Liberals. Barnaby, if it looks like a Liberal Party, if it walks like a Liberal Party and if it quacks like a Liberal Party, it is a Liberal Party. This is John Howard’s nightmare. I was a staffer to Bob Hawke in 1987 when we returned from an overseas trip—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member will refer to members and ministers by their title.

Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker—to be told that a group of businessmen had lost faith in Mr Howard and had launched a ‘Joh for PM’ campaign. On 31 January 1987, Sir Joh addressed a rally in Wagga and launched the ‘Joh for PM’ campaign, telling a small group of admirers:

I’m starting a bushfire today and it will go all over Australia.

He said:

I have some very, very good news for you today. The Coalition is finished.

In explaining the reasons for his decision to destroy the coalition, he said:

You can’t walk with a foot on either side of a barbwire fence. It’s very uncomfortable.

He went on to say:

And we will annihilate them and they will not be able to sustain their position. You cannot do the things they are doing and expect to win. You cannot win particularly when you have the record they’ve got. They are losers.

He was not talking about the Australian Labor Party; he was talking about the Liberal Party. The Prime Minister then announced the 1987 election when Sir Joh was in Disneyland. Peter Charlton reported:

The reaction when we rang Joh and said, ‘Look, the election’s been called and you haven’t even got a seat, you haven’t been preselected, you haven’t got your organisation. What do you think?’

Sir Joh replied:

That Hawke hasn’t called an election, has he? Oh that’s ... goodness gracious ...

The ‘Joh for PM’ campaign destroyed any chance that Mr Howard might have had of winning the 1987 election. Now, 20 years later, the Prime Minister gets to relive his nightmare: the Queensland Nationals are about to destroy the coalition again, but this time they are going to destroy the coalition by agreeing to be taken over by the Liberals.

This time it is not Sir Joh who is in Disneyland but the National Party leader. The Prime Minister knew two weeks ago about the talks that were going on but did not tell the National Party leader. His National Party colleague the member for Maranoa participated in the talks for two weeks, but he did not tell the National Party leader. The President of the Queensland National Party, David Russell, organised the talks but did not tell the National Party leader. The Queensland Nationals are about to abandon provincial Queensland—seats like Dawson, Hinkler and Wide Bay. We say to the people of Dawson, Hinkler and Wide Bay: you have no better friend than the Labor Party—a party committed to a nation building agenda; a party committed to making regional Australia a new engine of national economic growth. As Sir Joh famously declared 20 years ago, ‘The coalition is finished. Don’t you worry about that.’