‘Be normal’: Why these two leaders are speaking out amid their party’s chaos

In the Liberal National Party’s post-federal election apocalypse, there’s been an abundance of finger pointing and hand-wringing.

The blame game has been widespread, but the anger from the conservative wing inside Queensland has been the loudest on climate and migration policies – particularly Nationals figures Matt Canavan and Colin Boyce.

The powerful Queensland branch has felt particularly unruly in the months after the May election drubbing, likely due to the leadership vacuum left by vanquished Opposition leader Peter Dutton and the voluntary resignation of respected party elder Lawrence Springborg.

Premier David Crisafulli and Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner alongside the Prime Minister earlier this year.Credit: Dan Peled

This heated and argumentative setting made speeches from Premier David Crisafulli and Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner in the last month seem particularly poignant.

At first pass, both addresses may have appeared fairly innocuous. But as the disarray and turmoil within their party perpetuates, it’s clear two of the party’s highest-ranking elected officials in the country – on the mainland at least – have had enough.

At the Queensland LNP convention last month, the famously disciplined Crisafulli, who has largely resisted temptations to encroach on federal branch matters, delivered some brutal but correct truths to why the party was so compressively defeated.

“A plethora of well-meaning right-wing campaign groups and minor parties fractured our vote,” he said.

“The more we tried to appease them, the further we got from the middle ground of Australian politics who shifted their vote elsewhere.

“We cannot be distracted by internal squabbles and we cannot be captured by those who seek to divide us.”

The message was clearly aimed at the far-right Christian faction in his own parliamentary room to resist calls for abortion reform that he fears will scare away voters.

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But it was also a warning to the federal team who have both pushed to abandon net zero ambitions and spruiked anti-migration sentiment.

This week, Schrinner, another well-drilled party leader who has famously stayed in his lane, tore up a speech about housing policy at the last minute and delivered his own impassioned plea.

“We need to be different to the rest of the world,” the Lord Mayor said.

“We need to reject what’s happening in the rest of the world, and we need to reject political extremism in this country – and in this city, in particular.

“Let’s remember this: Brisbane is a place – and Australia is a place – that’s a truly successful multicultural nation.”

A senior government minister, who spoke to this masthead anonymously to share internal matters freely, said Crisafulli’s message to the party was consistent with constant reminders to his own party room, which is: “be normal”.

The frontbencher insisted the premier’s speech was more about defining the state team to separate itself from the chaos of the federal branch.

But another LNP insider said the warning was aimed at squashing squabbles that will ultimately dent Crisafulli’s – and also Schrinner’s – own future electoral prospects.

“If we tie ourselves up in knots federally on climate change debates or Christian Right debates, that impacts his brand as well as the LNP brand that he needs to be kept strong for the next state election,” the insider said.

“He’s got a very genuine interest in keeping that brand name strong and not becoming defined by what it can easily be defined by.

“If the feds don’t keep their act together, we may have people splitting off in all sorts of directions and I think he’s got a responsibility to keep that together.”

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