Tensions are high in the Young LNP in the lead up to the Youth Wing’s 2nd Convention to be held on Labor Day weekend (1st, 2nd, 3rd May). Enraged by the installation of factional chief Nina Schrinner (wife of the Caltabiano/Santo aligned BCC Councillor Adrian Schrinner and staffer to Senator Brett Mason) as interim president of the Young LNP post Simon Ingram, UQ Liberal Club and Student Union figures Josh Young and Luke Walker have bandied up with LNP moderate leaders James Hastie and Andrew Nyguen (former BCC Council Candidate in Richlands, former Johnson staffer) in an attempt to topple the Right’s five year stranglehold on the youth movement.

The secretive Santo controlled faction, known as “the Family” are putting up current Young LNP Secretary Rod Schneider for President, along with Michael Johnson aligned moderate heavyweight Susan Hedge for VP, in an attempt to put forward a united front. The left are running former UQ Union president and UQ Senator Josh Young for YLNP President, in a move that has upset right-aligned members in the Liberal Club/UQ Union administration.

The Left are relying on support from branches north of the river. Including James Hastie’s Indooroopilly branch, whose membership has swelled after a spate of recent university student stacking, to become the largest YLNP branch in the state. In addition, they rely on the Phuong controlled (formerly Simon Ingram) Mt Ommaney branch, Petrie, Sunshine Coast, Longman and Cairns branches.

The Right are dependent on branches south of river, including Bowman (held by Laming staffer Mitch Redford), Bonner (held by Caltabiano/Schrinner aligned former state candidate Ryan Murphy) and Gold Coast (held by Ciobo staffer Kylie Hart). They are relying on votes out of Townsville, Lilley, Brisbane Central and Fig Tree Pocket to deliver them the executive.

In a recent episode, UQ Union Secretary and NUS Queensland General Secretary Luke Walker (the son of famed Liberal moderate Ian Walker) used university numbers to take control of the Right-held Griffith Young LNP. Hastie and Nyguen recently tried to stack Fig Tree Pocket out from under Right ticket VP candidate Susan Hedge, but failed when the chair failed to recognise the stacks as legitimate voting members.

Former Young Nationals leader and factional heavy David Goodwin is supporting the Right, while former councillor and Beaudesert State MP Aidan McLindon is staying out of the fray, along with Hinchinbrook MP Andrew Cripps. BCC Councillors and Young LNP members Andrew Wines (Enoggera) and Matthew Bourke (Jamboree) are parking their support behind Mr Schneider. Kawana MP Jarrod Blejie is supporting Mr Young.

There is a very bitter private battle being played out here, and it involves all faucets [sic] of the new party.

Myer is fuming about Jennifer Hawkins’ fashion spread in yesterday’s Sunday Life in The Sunday Age and Sun Herald. No mention of Myer — and she is their $5m star — and most of the fashion she wore is not available from Myer. Some is only available at DJs and most in specialty boutiques. There will be furious calls to Fairfax today.

BrisConnections: Trevor Rowe knew on Easter Sunday what was going to happen on Tuesday. If Leighton had done a deal for $4.5 million to buy Bolton’s votes, the deal would have been absolutely unconditional. You don’t pay that and give someone the ability to renege. Bolton would not have been able to wiggle out of it and change his mind to vote for his own resolutions. So it is trite for Rowe to say that “it was not material and in any event we could not announce it as intentions change”, as these were not intentions, they were contracted obligations and the market should have been informed immediately. He and everyone else in the camp knew it. The weasel words and unacknowledged conflicts are astonishing.

A few weeks ago there was a mention about the NSW Government refusing to release a report from a NSW-QLD cross-border transport taskforce which was established in June 2006 as a pre-election sweetener for the marginal seat of Tweed, and scheduled to report by mid-2007. After failing to comply with an order from the state upper house to release the report, claiming that the final report has not yet been prepared, the Government has since announced that the report will be released by the end of this month. However, according to a well-placed ALP source the final report was produced some time ago and has already been seen by members of some northern NSW ALP branches. Furthermore, this source claims that the report, which is supposed to be from the NSW Ministry of Transport, was actually written by Marilyn Wagstaff, a staffer to former Tweed MP Neville Newell, and who now works for Federal MP for Page Janelle Saffin.

What’s going on at Sunrise with its weather forecast? I don’t know if it because Fifi is a blonde, but lately the morning weather forecast has been out of sync. This morning it had Today, Tomorrow, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday as its five day weather out look. The same happened last week.