Amy Remeikis reports in the Brisbane Times (7.3.16) on Cairns MP, Rob Pyne’s, decision to resign from the Palaszczuk Labor Government, and the implications for Queensland’s hung parliament.
‘Cairns MP Rob Pyne has officially resigned from the Australian Labor Party, making the Palaszczuk government’s grip on power all the more tenuous.
‘Mr Pyne will join fellow former Labor MP and north Queensland MP Billy Gordon on the crossbench as an independent when Parliament sits again next week, dropping Labor’s numbers in the House to 42 MPs, on par with the Opposition.
‘It also gives the crossbench, where Mr Gordon and the Katter MPs Shane Knuth and Robbie Katter already held significant bargaining power, even more influence.
‘But Mr Pyne said he had no desire to see the LNP in power in Queensland and would continue to support a Labor government in any confidence motion as he believed it was “for the people of Queensland to decide who led it”, not the Parliament.’