Queensland Liberals have been astounded that, despite privacy laws, Nationals leader Lawrence Springborg seems to have their contact details.

And they’ve been even more amazed at this missive that’s been arriving in their inboxes over the past few days – and how, despite Monday’s pseudo-summit and the bucket of cold water thrown over the idea by the prime minister, Springborg can’t let go of his idea for the Pineapple Party, a union of the conservative forces in Queensland no one else seems to want:

SPECIAL NEWSLETTER UPDATE

On Monday 21st March a special meeting was convened by the Prime Minister that included the Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson, State Opposition and Nationals Leader Lawrence Springborg and State Liberal Leader Bob Quinn.

The meeting was in response to a request from Mr Springborg to discuss the future of conservative politics in Queensland.

The Nationals have adopted as policy a road-map that will allow the rank and file membership of both parties to determine whether or not they want to form one united party.

However the Prime Minister is on record as saying he personally would prefer to see a Coalition in Queensland. On radio last week he said that a State Coalition was the only way to defeat Peter Beattie and Labor.

Monday’s discussions focused on the way forward given the State Executive of the Liberal Party has publicly opposed both Lawrence Springborg’s plan for a united party and John Howard’s plan for a coalition in Queensland.

The nature of those discussions are confidential and were between the four parliamentary leaders and the four parliamentary leaders alone.

A subsequent meeting between the four leaders will be convened in the near future to discuss these issues further.

Monday’s meeting covered a lot of ground.

No alleged documents were put on the table. No alleged research was put on the table. No alleged ultimatums were put on the table. The discussions were extremely positive.

There have been claims in the media by people who did not participate in the meeting that various documents were presented or discussed. These claims are pure falsehoods and are being made by a person who was not present at the meeting and will not be present at the next meeting.

Removing people with personal vested interests or factional agendas, is the best way forward for conservative politics in Queensland.

The Leader of the Opposition
Parliament House, Alice Street, Brisbane QLD 4000 Australia
www.springborg.com
Phone: (07) 3406 7997 | Fax: (07) 3221 1496

© 2004 authorised by L. Springborg, Parliament House, Alice St, Brisbane QLD 4000