QLD:Seeney 'most hated in bush': Hobbs

AAP General News (Australia)
04-15-2011
QLD:Seeney 'most hated in bush': Hobbs

BRISBANE, April 15 AAP - A senior Queensland opposition MP has described the Liberal
National Party's (LNP) parliamentary leader Jeff Seeney as "the most hated man in the
bush".

Howard Hobbs, who was dumped this week from the shadow ministry by LNP leader Campbell
Newman, says he will stay in politics to fight for the state's west.

Mr Hobbs said he was the only LNP MP with long-term cabinet experience and he was worried
that under Mr Newman's reshuffle there would "only be one minister between Moggill and
the Northern Territory border," he told the Courier Mail newspaper on Friday.

"We would only have one minister out here and that is Jeff Seeney - and he is the most
hated man in the bush."

Mr Hobbs said Mr Seeney's support for coal seam gas mining has put him at odds with
other members of the party and its supporters in the west.

"These are the issues the LNP face, however we are going to overcome them and we still
want to aim to win the next state election, we want to beat the Labor government, we want
to be able to put in place policies that are better for the people, particularly of rural
Queensland," he told ABC Radio.

The paper has also revealed that Mr Hobbs and two other LNP MPs, Ray Hopper and Ian
Rickuss, are facing challenges to their preselections.

That has been confirmed by the party's president, Bruce McIver.

AAP crh/jlw

KEYWORD: LNP

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