Vic: Tensions reignite between former Coalition partners

AAP General News (Australia)
02-16-2000
Vic: Tensions reignite between former Coalition partners

MELBOURNE, Feb 16 AAP - The upcoming battle for Benalla has reignited tensions between
the Victorian Liberal and National parties at a two-day regional conference which continues
today.

State Liberal and National Party members yesterday returned to Ballarat - the scene
of their worst electoral debacle - for a workshop on how they can win back disgruntled
regional voters.

But longstanding tensions resurfaced when National Party leader Peter Ryan warned his
former Liberal coalition partners not to run a candidate in the seat yet to be vacated
by his predecessor, Pat McNamara.

"What we have simply said, as we've said before, is that it is not in the interest
of the conservative parties for them to run a candidate in that seat," Mr Ryan told AAP.

Contests between the conservative parties in by-elections are allowed under the now
defunct coalition agreement but have long been a source of angst for the Nationals.

Mr McNamara will take his seat when parliament resumes on February 29, and has assured
colleagues he will not force a by-election until he's confident the Nationals can win.

Liberal leader Denis Napthine said it was premature for the Liberal Party to make a

decision on contesting the seat.

"If and when Mr McNamara announces his departure we will consider it at that time," he said.

Premier Steve Bracks said the opposition needed to do more than hold party meetings
in Ballarat to make regional Victorians forget how they were snubbed by the parties in
government.

The Liberal Party was wiped out in Ballarat, losing two lower house and two upper house
seats there along with the neighbouring lower house seats of Ripon and Gisborne.

AAP lmw/bdm/br

KEYWORD: COALITION VIC DAYLEAD

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