Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I want to answer it, Mr President—I do want to answer it! I know it is hard for the Labor Party to get this through their heads, that in Queensland our party, unlike in the Queensland Labor Party, is run by its members. Our party is a grassroots party: it is run by the people who turn up to the branch meetings week after week and volunteer their time. That is why I am here, that is who I am representing and that is why I spend so many nights in this place, away from my wife and family, because I want to help their aspirations and their ideas to get support in Queensland.

So, any decision about the Liberal National Party is one for its members. It is not like the Labor Party, where decisions are made somewhere in Brisbane—I do not know where they are based in Brisbane, but somewhere in inner-city Brisbane. Our decisions are made all over Queensland, by all the members in Queensland—by the 14,000 members of the LNP. That is who makes the decisions. So it is not for Senator Brandis or me. No-one cares what our opinion is in the LNP; it is the opinions of the party that matter.