A push to ban “environmental propaganda” from schools and teach “normal science” about climate change is among motions set to be discussed at the Liberal National Party convention beginning today.
LNP members will consider 101 motions, including proposals to remove union entry rights under workplace health and safety laws, ensure insurance companies cover all types of flood damage, and introduce four-year fixed terms to Queensland Parliament.
The LNP's Thuringowa State Electorate Council has also called on the LNP government to increase speed limits on open roads to 130km/h where possible.
The three-day convention is the first major LNP gathering since the party swept to power in Queensland in a landslide in March.
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The event, at the Hilton Hotel in Brisbane, will include keynote addresses by Premier Campbell Newman and federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott today.
The LNP will also consider whether to support a raft of motions put forward by grassroots members in various parts of the state.
For example, the LNP's Noosa State Electorate Council says the LNP should call on Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek to “require Queensland government schools to remove environmental propaganda material [and] in particular post normal science about 'climate change'”.
At last year's conference, LNP president Bruce McIver questioned the role of humans in driving climate change, arguing the climate was always changing and children were being “brainwashed” in the way climate science was taught.
Other motions set for debate at this year's convention include a push by the Young LNP to change state workplace health and safety laws.
The proposed change would remove union access rights under the workplace health and safety entry permit system, while preserving the power of other inspectors.
The LNP's state executive has proposed a motion calling on the government to allow union members greater knowledge of the financial details of their union affairs.
This would include requiring unions that operate within Queensland industrial laws to register with the Office of Fair Trading.
The motion suggests unions with turnover of more than $1 million a year should be required to report at the standard of compliance required by public companies including having registered company auditors.
The state executive also wants to stop public servants from having their union dues paid through payroll deductions, in a move it says would “help prevent discrimination either for or against union membership in the public service”.
A motion by the LNP Women in Callide Valley, meanwhile, calls for companies providing flood insurance to cover any flood damage no matter how it is caused, in the wake of concerns raised during the 2010-11 Queensland floods.
LNP Women in Brisbane South wants the LNP government to “provide further community education to health and allied health professionals (among others) about adoption in Queensland to raise awareness about and promotion of adoption as an option for women with unplanned or crisis pregnancies”.
The Ipswich State Electorate Council has put forward a motion that would seem to stray from the standard conservative “tough on crime” theme.
It suggests Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie should consider the introduction of home and weekend detention as an alternative to imprisonment for less serious, non-violent offending in Queensland.
Keynote speakers at the convention tomorrow will be federal Nationals leader Warren Truss and deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop. Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk will speak on Sunday.
Protesters are likely to descend on the convention. Equal rights advocates are calling on same-sex couples to join a “mass civil ceremonies and kiss-in” outside the LNP convention on Saturday.
About 390 people have declared on Facebook they will attend the rally, called to protest the LNP's moves to water down same-sex civil union laws and ban gay and lesbian couples from surrogacy.
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