The renegade Liberal National party senator Gerard Rennick has been dumped from a winnable spot on the party’s Queensland ticket at the next election.
Senators Paul Scarr and Susan McDonald were preselected, as expected, in the top two spots. Each is almost certain to be returned to parliament.
The battle for the third spot – which is winnable but would require the LNP to boost its primary vote in Queensland – had been viewed by some as a battle for the soul of the party.
After a close vote, the third spot went to Stuart Fraser, a Brisbane businessman and long-serving party treasurer. Fraser is known publicly for being the reforming president of the exclusive Tattersall’s Club who paved the way for women to become members.
Many moderates believed Rennick – a renegade senator with controversial views on Ukraine and Covid vaccines, and who has courted the rightwing fringe – represented a threat to the party’s efforts to regain urban voters in Brisbane, who have swung to Labor at state level and the Greens federally.
Others thought that his presence in third position on the ticket, like Amanda Stoker at the 2022 election, could help the LNP retain voters who have peeled off to a coterie of fringe rightwing parties at recent elections.
Some are concerned that Rennick might “go rogue … or even more rogue” now he is unlikely to continue a political career in the LNP.
“But the LNP needed to make a statement that it is a mainstream party, and that’s what it has done today,” one moderate member said.
Voting for the third position on the ticket was close throughout.
Rennick – who had support from some of the party’s conservatives and the Christian right – was leading heading into the final round of voting.
The moderate vote had been split between Fraser and Nelson Savanh, who were separated by four votes.
After Savanh was eliminated, his supporters swung in behind Fraser.
