The Queensland Liberals and Nationals today announced the formation of a new coalition. The “Coalition of Equals” as they call it in their joint press release wasn’t a good result for the Liberals and robs them of much of the momentum that they gained by winning the Redcliffe and Chatsworth by-elections.
The term “Coalition of Equals” gives the game away. If it was true, they wouldn’t have to say it, and it brings to mind George Orwell’s Animal Farm slogan – “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. Yes, and they live in rural electorates.
While the Liberals are best placed to win urban seats they agreed to contest only those seats they contested the last time, with the exception of Burleigh, which the National Party ceded to them this time. In the seats of Broadwater, Gaven, Mudgeeraba, Redlands, Springwood and Hervey Bay the parties squibbed on the issue by deciding to have “joint pre-selections”.
I’m not sure how you do that under the constitution of each of the parties, but it sounds to me like an invitation to all-out branch stacking in seats where the National Party should have no reasonable expectation of winning a popular vote. But if the National Party can find more bodies than the Liberals, they are likely to be the party contesting it for the Coalition. [See the following post for the details on joint pre-selections, they are not quite what I imagined when doing this post.]
I’ll hunt up the details later and hopefully do a post later tonight.