LNP defector unloads on fellow MPs

OPENS UP: Ray Hopper Member for Condamine at his property outside Toowoomba PIC: Jamie Hanson Source: The Courier-Mail

RAY Hopper has laid bare the tensions inside the LNP, labelling the deputy leader an "ignorant slob".

He also accused his former colleague of becoming a Liberal as the war within the party continues to bubble.

Jeff Seeney recently sat down for breakfast with Mr Hopper and ate in silence, ignoring the LNP colleague of a decade.

Whether Mr Seeney was distracted with affairs of state is hardly relevant - to Hopper it was an appalling display of ignorance.

"I couldn't believe it - known him for more than ten years and he didn't say a word," Mr Hopper said.

"Ignorant slob."

The morning breakfast episode is symptomatic of a wider issue, with some MPs feeling left out of the party's inner circle.

In Hopper's 10-month experience inside the LNP, to be old style National Party MP is to be not merely excluded, but occasionally treated with aggressive contempt.

He says Premier Campbell Newman surrounds himself with yes-men who won't challenge authority or buck the system.

But it's Seeney, whom he accuses of selling out the bush, who inspires Hopper's deepest contempt.

"Jeff Seeney has turned his back on his electorate and become a Liberal," Hopper says.

He's also watched on in horror at what he sees as the appalling treatment of billionaire Clive Palmer who retains enormous affection among sections of the former National Party.

"I have ran an auction (raising funds for the National Party) offering a painting for sale for $500 and heard Clive yell out for the back offering $20,000," he says.

"He spent decades working for the party."

Yet with the March landslide under Mr Newman it appeared a loyal servant could be dispensed with, he said.

In Hopper's eyes Seeney's bickering with Palmer appears to have an almost sinister edge, with the Biloela MP determined to engage in some sort of "mano-a-mano" war fare with the billionaire.

"Seeney wants to be tougher than Clive Palmer and he gets a buzz out of it. That's what this is all about - Seeney gets off on it."

He says the old National Party angst over the rise of the Liberals is not all about cultural differences - there's money involved.

Mr Hopper says old Nats bitterly recall bailing out a financially crippled Liberal Party to create an LNP which swallowed them alive.

"They were insolvent, we bailed them out, we formed the LNP," he says.

"And then we get ignored."

Mr Hopper is savagely critical of the way the LNP handles the coal seam gas issue.

He wants to halt all projects east of the Condamine River to protect a valuable "food basket" of black-soil country.

While he does not have a blanket opposition to mining he believes the LNP is deceptive on coal seam gas, with legislation always leaving an avenue open to benefit miners.

"I am sick of legislation with loop holes - there's always a way miners can sneak through."

With more than a decade's experience in the Parliament he's confident he can frame tighter laws the LNP couldn't afford to oppose without jettisoning regional support.

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