Second shot kills merger, third shot kills who? - posted by Graham

It's now official - the Liberal/National merger is dead. The state Coalition pollies had a first chance to kill the merger Monday at their joint party-room meeting. They missed and allowed their leadership team to claim that they had unanimous... More

Research Results - posted by Graham

Lawrence Springborg claims that the overwhelming majority of voters want a merger. We researched that online for our regular "What the people want" segment on ABC Brisbane radio. We asked voters whether the merger, as detailed by the Liberal Party,... More

Liberal Document with Key Points - posted by Graham

This document (pdf 44kb) lays out the mechanism by which the National Party will become part of the Liberal Party. It puts paid to suggestions that this is just an agreement in principal. The mechanisms, right down to when the... More

Is it OK to tell a girl you'll marry her just to get her into bed? - posted by Graham

The Australian confirms what I understood to be the case - when the National and Liberal Party organisations met simultaneously on Sunday they were each given different deals and told that the deal they had before them was the one... More

"Nem con" rather than "unanimous" - posted by Graham

Lawrence Springborg used these words in an interview with Madonna King this morning to imply that the joint party room has unanimously endorsed the plan to merge the Liberal and National Parties. "The joint National and Liberal party room met... More

A history of mergers and amalgamations - posted by Graham

Writing on his blog Geoff Robinson sketches a brief history of mergers of the non-Labor forces in Queensland. I'm posting this with his permission, and suggest you check his blog out. The announced merger between the Liberals and nationals in... More

Official Liberal Party version - posted by Graham

This document was sent to me by a Liberal Party member. It is an email that has been sent to Liberal Party members with email addresses explaining the proposal and was marked "Private and Confidential". It is clearly at odds... More

Merger demerging - posted by Graham

The proposed Queensland merger appears to be still-born, going on statements made in the press this morning. Yesterday very reliable sources could tell me what the structure of the deal was, including some of the proposed changes to the Liberal... More

Liberal National merger - posted by Graham

The Liberal and National Party Queensland organisations have met today and agreed to "merge" the two state parties. While in fact a merger, it will structurally mean the dissolution of the Queensland National Party, with its assets and members being... More

Got God's number, negative. - posted by Graham

I'm getting out of the habit of blogging it seems. Or maybe I'm just too busy. We buried my Dad yesterday. He was 93, going on 94, and the major financial supporter of this site. That, and a conversation with... More

Howard and Gillard preferred leaders. - posted by Graham

Septuagenarian Rupert Murdoch graciously shared some advice for sextuagenarian John Howard with the world - go while you're on top of your game. Advice that Rupert is sure to heed himself. No-one is inexpendable after all! In fact, as our... More

Insanity in the RAN - Peter Cabban to Robyn Fahey - posted by Graham

One of the most striking aspects of the bastardisation of Lieutenant Commander Robyn Fahey is the attempted use of a medical mis-diagnosis to incarcerate her for sanity. It's striking not just because the doctor who made the mis-diagnosis is still... More

Questions for Bill Shorten - posted by Graham

Bill, if belonging to a union is such a good idea why is it that you are only acting on safety problems at the Beaconsfield mine after they've proved fatal? Rather than just calling for an inquiry into the mine... More

Orphan tax and super - posted by Graham

Tax cuts and spending increases - the Treasurer would seem to have covered it all. That's certainly the impression from today's papers, but that's partly a function of the people who write newspapers - they're employees, and they're more likely... More

Is Guy Rundle right - are blogs fading? - posted by Graham

Guy Rundle, writing in Crikey, makes a case that blogging will go the same way as CB radios. As with CBs, what thrilled people with blogs was "the ecstasy of communication", the pure fact of being out there in the... More