Former right-wing senator, Sky News host may get cabinet role if LNP wins power, MP suggests
By Matt Dennien
The news
A federal Liberal MP has told a constituent he suspects that former right-wing Sky News host and conservative senator Amanda Stoker may hold an influential legal role in a state LNP government if elected next month.
Bowman MP Henry Pike – whose Redlands-based seat overlaps the Oodgeroo electorate Stoker is contesting – made the comments in reply to an email about the defence suicides royal commission.
Amanda Stoker was the assistant minister to the attorney-general in the Morrison Coalition government.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The email was referred to and tabled by Health Minister Shannon Fentiman in parliament on Wednesday, the penultimate sitting day before the October 26 election.
Why it matters
Even before Stoker, a former barrister, was preselected, Labor had seized on her position on the conservative religious side of the party to attack the state opposition.
This included her public opposition to abortion, transgender rights, and voluntary assisted dying, along with her support for nuclear energy – being pushed by the federal Coalition – in contrast to the state LNP.
Since her nomination, there has been speculation in the party and beyond – brushed off by state leader David Crisafulli – that Stoker would be elevated straight into cabinet if the LNP were to win government.
Stoker was relegated to the third spot on the LNP’s Senate ticket before losing her seat at the 2022 federal election. She is now seeking to replace outgoing LNP MP Mark Robinson in the previously safe seat, which fellow former federal Liberal Andrew Laming was also eyeing at one stage.
What they said
In the email, Pike said it was good that Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath, who is not recontesting her Redcliffe seat, was aware of the issue being discussed.
“But she will only be our AG for another 50-odd days,” he said. “Have you had a chance to brief anyone from the LNP state team?
“I suspect that Amanda Stoker ... may hold a role in the new government that could influence their approach.”
Perspectives
Pike and Stoker were contacted for comment and were yet to respond, while Crisafulli’s office would not be drawn beyond comments made on Tuesday.
Asked by journalists at a media conference if shadow attorney-general Tim Nicholls would hold that portfolio in a potential LNP cabinet, Crisafulli said he would.
Pressed on whether this was also the case for some others in his 19-person shadow cabinet, he said “the team I’m taking to the election is the team that we will have after the election”.
Despite positioning herself firmly on the Christian right, Stoker told The Australian such cultural issues would not be her focus, and her past accusations that former LNP leader Deb Frecklington was “playing the gender card” would not be “on anyone’s mind”.
Raising the email in parliament on Wednesday, Fentiman spruiked Labor’s 2018 decriminalisation of abortion and expansion of access this year – both opposed by the LNP.
“You only need to look at Amanda Stoker to know what is in store for Queensland women and girls,” she said.