Outgoing senator George Brandis has fired a parting shot at Queensland's Liberal National Party merger, claiming he had long warned against far-right parties filling the power vacuum it would create.
Senator Brandis, who will soon head to London as Australia's high commissioner, criticised the party's poor performances at state elections and said he opposed the 2008 merger from the start.
"I thought in the long run, a power vacuum would open up, particularly in regard to regional Queensland, which would be occupied by other right-wing parties," he told the Courier Mail on Thursday.
"The LNP has fought four state elections and lost three."
New state opposition leader Deb Frecklington has defended the merger, saying it has created a united voice for conservative politics.
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But NSW Liberal Senator Concetta Anna Fierravanti-Wells said the time had come for the Queensland LNP to de-merge.
"The reality is that we from the conservative side of politics are leaking to the right," she told Sky News
"I think it's important that the LNP do now split and leave it to the National Party to work more assiduously on the more conservative end of the spectrum, and leave it to the Liberal Party to work the more moderate end."
