Crikey does not know the bloke who wrote this piece on the shenanigans surrounding the Queensland senate vacancy but it’s a hell uva good read.
We left the Brandis-bagging exercise by an anonymous contributing on the site until Monday morning until the following came through from one of his supporters.

In Defence Of George Brandis
By A Brandis Backer

There are number of deliberate inaccuracies case by an historical revisionist and bitter loser, in your article, Branch Stacking, Brandis and Banana Benders.

The results of the Senate preselection were:

Brandis 128

Kember 60

Fraser 31

Blake 5

Cartmill 4

West 4

To in someone way suggest anything other than a Brandis win, is a total fantasy.

Of the 14 votes for the minor candidates, 10 would have flown to Brandis is subsequent rounds, letting alone attempting to distribute either of the other two candidates votes.

On the day, there were 5 people who didn’t turn up, who would have voted for Brandis (2 of whom were from Rankin).

On the issue of Rankin:

The Rankin spin-off proposal had been pushed by Federal MP and former MacGibbon staffer, Gary Hardgrave for almost two years, and the motion to split it off at an FEC level came from none other than key Tucker numbers man, John Caris. At State Executive, the proposal was moved by Tucker supporter, Chris Penglis, Moreteon FEC Senior Vice Chairman.

Indeed, if Rankin had continued to remain a part of the Morteon FEC, there wouldn’t have been a split 4:6 result out of the FEC for delegates, it would have been a 10:0 result. When you take into account 8 people from Rankin turned up on the day, that gives the combined FECs 12:6 to Brandis (i.e. net 6) when as a singular combination it may very well have been 10:0 (i.e. a net 10).

On the issue of Ryan:

The continuing playing of the race card in Ryan is disturbing. Council candidate Carmel Draper wasn’t bemoaning the fact that that 50 out of 60 people who turned up to her $50 a head fundraiser with Victorian Senator Tsbin Chen were from this community.

Nor were there figures factually accurate. The margin on most of the delegate positions was 100 votes, with the exception of three candidates. There were 100 members from the Centenary branch, with around 20 of those members attending not being from the Chinese community. Given that branch has three hundred members, the amount of turnout is broadly consistent with the turnout from the rest of the Federal Electorate (300 from 1050).

On the issue of Dawson/Capricornia:

This electorate got votes after it had a very late influx of membership renewals, supplied by the same people who attacked the granting of votes to the Rankin FEC. Capricornia/Dawson ended up providing seven delegates to the preselection. To claim they were locked out of the preselection either represents a deliberate lie, or careless research.

On the issue of Blair:

Blair is widely accepted as being closely aligned with former President, Bob Carroll, having been formed under his presidency, by former six from the floor and Ryan branch member, Peter Clarke. Having had the Tucker camp try to foist (former) Liberal icon Sir James Killen on to them, the locals have little respect for Tucker, or his people. To suggest that the FEC would deliver 10 votes, or even any votes, to their candidate is pure, unadulterate fantasy. Although it doesn’t stop Barry listing Cameron Thompson, MP for Blair, as being a member of the Carroll faction.

So to posit that “30 anti-brandis votes were turned into 20 pro Brandis votes” is an art of fiction. Ryan would have delivered at best two anti-Brandis votes in the absence of the preselectors Barry Banana wants to shut out based on race (I think that is called racism), the result from Moreteon/Rankin would have improved on a consolidated basis, Capricornia/Dawson exercised its votes, and Blair would have delivered a strong Brandis majority.

As for the personally vindicative crap about George Brandis,it seems like that is all it is, and should be read as such. In relation to the one nation preference decision, it should be remembered there was only one person who argued vehermently against the One Nation preference decision and voted against – George Brandis. Others have only subsequently and opportunistically become critics of it.